170 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



This is pre-eminently the field lily, and the only one of our 

 wild lilies which is of a golden-yellow color. Like the Turk's- 

 cap, it nods on its stem, but unlike that, which rears a pyramid 

 of many rich blossoms, this hangs out a single golden bell, or at 

 most two or three lilies, on its flower-bearing stalk. Height, 3 to 

 5 feet. Flowers about 2% inches long, the sepals curving back- 

 ward. The stamens, as in all our lilies, have prominent brown 

 anthers, which dust the bodies of big bees with pollen when they 

 sip the nectar from the bells. 



The stigma is large and 3-divided. 



In the fields, low-lying and moist, or sometimes in swamps, 

 where this flower appears in profusion, the golden color most 

 charmingly tints the entire meadows. Perhaps a few of the red 

 lilies may keep it company, but for the most part these prefer a 

 drier and shadier locality. Nova Scotia, south to Georgia, west 

 to Missouri. 



59, Turk's-cap Lily 



L. superbum. — Family, Lily. Color, dark orange, spotted 

 with red. Leaves, in whorls, long, narrow, 3-veined, sessile. 

 Time, August. 



Sepals, 6, rolled back. Stamens, 6, with linear anthers lightly 

 attached at their middle to slender filaments. Style, thick, 

 bearing a 3-lobed stigma. Flowers, nodding, arranged in rows, 

 one row above another, making a pyramid of from 3 to 4a 

 blossoms. 



A stalk 7 to 8 feet high, crowned with many rows of these 

 large, bright lilies, is one of the handsomest gifts of the flow- 

 er kingdom. Neither is it chary of its charms, for it blooms 

 in the low meadows, along the roadside, in thickets, rearing its 

 beautiful pyramids where the clethra grows, near the border of a 

 marsh or shaded stream, wherever the soil is moist. 



60. Blazing-Star. Devil's-bit. Unicorn-root. 

 Drooping Starwort 



Chamaellrium Carolinianum. — i^rt;w?7y, Bunch-flower. Color, 

 white. Leaves, upper ones lance-shaped or linear, flat, sessile 



