65 



The best plant material for study of the identities of daylilies is 

 of course living plants. During the past few years various ship- 

 ments of living plants and of seeds labeled Hcmcrocallis flava have 

 come to The New York Botanical Garden from rather widely sepa- 

 rated districts of the Orient. Also seeds or plants of unnamed 

 yellow-flowered daylilies have been received and grown. In no 

 case has any plant thus obtained even closely resembled the type of 

 H. flava L. which is still in general culture in Europe and America. 

 Furthermore, a careful inspection of the descriptions of H, flava 

 in floras of the Orient and of the herbarium specimens from this 

 area does not reveal any type of HemerocaMs that can be definitely 

 assigned to the H. flava of Linnaeus. 



The type or clone of Lemon Daylily (Figure i) most gen- 



Figure 3. This illustration of the Lemon Daylily is from a photograph 

 of a woodcut published in Lobel's Historia in 1576. In respect to the large 

 size and the shape of the capsule, as well as in numerous other characters, 

 the clone of the Lemon Daylily most commonly cultivated at the present 

 time appears to be the same as the plant here illustrated. 



