388 



THE LILT FAMILY. 



The British species amount to twenty-eight, six of them growing 

 wild near Manchester. 



A. — Flowers deep golden yellow. 

 Stem decumbent at the base, afterwards erect, stifiF, six toN 

 twelve inches high. Leaves hnear, three to six inches 

 long, flat, curved like a scimetar, and standing edgeways. 1. Lancashtre 

 Flowers in a terminal raceme, half an inch across, star- ( Asphodel. 

 like, greenish at the back. Stamens covered with -woolly 

 hairs. Anthers scarlet 



B. — Flowers not in the least yellow. 

 Flower-stems leafy. 

 Stem nearly two feet high, the upper part inclining to oneN 

 side, so as to form half a Gothic arch. Leaves oval, three I 



or four inches long, pointed, spreading, and turning up- 1 



, . ^ T^, X 1. ? • 1, 1 h6. Solomon's Seat. 



wards m two ranks. Flowers tubular, an mch long, 



whitish, green-tipped, axillary, in twos or threes, and 



pendulous. Berries dark purple ^ 



Stem slender, twelve to fifteen inches high, with three or four. 

 linear leaves, and a large, sohtary, terminal, and drooping | 

 bell-shaped flower, formed of six separate pieces, regu- 

 larly chequered with dull and light red, like a chess- 

 board 



Snake's-head 

 Lily. 



Flower-stems leafless. Leaves all radical. 

 Leaves broadly-lanceolate, petioled, six to eight inches long,^^ 

 and an inch or more broad. Flower-stems nine inches 

 high, three-cornered, bearing a large loose umbel ofj^g^ Wood Garlic. 

 about a dozen snow-white and star-like flowers, with two 

 large and whitish bracts underneath. Ovary three-lobed. 

 Whole plant intensely gai-lic-scented. (Fig. 108) 



Leaves linear, weak, and flaccid. Flower-stems six to eight, 

 inches high, cylindrical, and bearing a large loose corymb 

 of white and star-like flowers which, when opened by the Common Star of 

 sunshine, are nearly an inch across, the six component)- ' Betulehem. 

 pieces each with a broad green stripe down the back. 

 Ovary six-angled. Lower peduncles much longer than 

 the upper ones 



Leaves long and linear. Flower-stems about a foot high,\ 

 cylindrical, brittle, with a terminal one-sided raceme of I 

 two or three to twelve drooping blue flowers, which are [^ 

 tubular, about an inch long, formed of six distinct pieces, 

 recurved at the extremity. Two narrow blueish bracts 

 under each flower 



Blue-bell. 



