* 
744 ORD. XLVI. Liliacee. LILIUM CANDIDUM 
the style is longer than the filaments, and furnished with a fleshy 
triangular stigma: the germen becomes an oblong capsule, marked 
with six furrows, and divided into three cells, which contain many 
flattish seeds of a semicircular form. It flowers in June and July. 
This Lily, which now very commonly decorates the borders of 
our gardens with the beautiful whiteness* of its flowers, is a native 
of the Levant, and has been cultivated here since the time of 
Gerard, The flowers of this plant have a pleasant sweet smell, 
and were formerly used for medicinal purposes ;° a watery distil- 
lation of them was employed as a cosmetic, and the oleum liliorum 
was supposed to possess anodyne and nervine powers; but the 
odorous matter of these flowers is of a very volatile kind, being 
totally dissipated 1 in drying, and entirely carried off in evaporation 
by rectified spirit as well as water; and though both menstrua 
become impregnated with their agreeable odour by infusion or 
distillation, yet no essential oil could be obtained from several 
pounds of the flowers. It is ‘therefore the roots only which. are 
now directed by the Edinburgh College : they. are extremely 
mucilaginous, and are chiefly sy boiled with milk or water, in 
emollient and suppurating cataplasms: it is probable however, 
that the poultices formed of bread or farina, possess every advan- 
tage of those prepared of Lily root. 
Lilium & Aspov vel Apr. By the Greeks it is called xpixs. 
* Alluding to oe Ovid, in the luxuriancy of his yaaa ascribes = origin 
to the milk of Juno 
‘* Dum puer Alcides Dive vagus ubera suxit 
** Junonis, dulci pressa sapore fuit ; 
** Ambrosiumque alto lac distillavit Olympo 
“ Tn terras fusum Lilia pulchra dedit.” 
Pliny says, Lélium Ros@ nobilitate proximum est; and“both these flowers hare 
furnished their share of metaphor to ancient and modern poets. 
Either singly, 
———— vel mixta oeaat ubi lilia multa 
Alba rosa: tales yirgo dabat ore colores. ZEn, lib; XH. 68: 
* Particularly as an antiepileptic and anodyne. 
