254 LILIACE^— LILY TRIBE 



stem is from nine inches to a foot high, and the flowers expand in April and 

 May. 



11. Gagea (Gdijea). 



Yellow Gagea (G. lutca). — Flowers in an unbranched umbel ; stem 

 angular ; root-leaves narrow, lanceolate, ribbed, keeled, erect, taller than the 

 stem ; bulb with leathery coats. This rare wild flower occurs in pastures 

 and bushy places in several parts of England and the Lowlands of Scotland, 

 chiefly on the eastern half of the island. Its stem is about half a foot high. 

 The blossoms, which expand from March till May, but only remain open till 

 noon, are yellow within, tipped with green, and green externally. The plant 

 was formerly included in the genus Orni/hogalam, and is chiefly distinguished 

 from it by its yellow flower. It is still mentioned as yellow Star of Beth- 

 lehem. 



12. Lloydia {LUydia). 



Mountain Lloydia {L. serutina).- — Leaves semi-cylindrical, those on 

 the stem widened at the base ; flower solitary ; bulb minute, with many 

 loose, scaly sheaths. This plant, which was formerly called Mountain Spider- 

 wort, is very rare, growing on some of the most elevated mountains in AVales. 

 Its stem is five or six inches high, with several small leaves ; and its flowers, 

 which expand in June, are erect, white, externally veined with green, and 

 internally with reddish lines. 



13. Tulip (Tulipa). 



Wild Tulip (T. sylvistris). — Flower solitary, rather drooping ; stamens 

 hairy at the base ; leaves linear-lanceolate, smooth ; bulb egg-shaped, covered 

 with brown scales. This plant has but few British localities. It has been 

 found in chalk-pits in Norfolk, Sufl"olk, Yorkshire, and Somerset. In these 

 localities it is really wild, but in others it is only naturalized. Its flower is 

 sufficiently like those of our gay G-arden Tulips to enable anyone to identify 

 it as of the same genus ; but the plant has a much smaller blossom than the 

 cultivated species, and its colour within is bright yellow, and externally 

 yellowish-green. It is drooping and fragrant, and both anthers and pollen 

 are yellow. It has very narrow leaves, and a bulb which increases by send- 

 ing out a runner, at the end of which a new bulb is formed. This Tulip 

 grows wild in the southern parts of France ; and Ijinnseus enumerates it 

 among the flowers of Sweden. Though no flower aftbrds a greater number 

 of varieties than the Tulip, jQt there are not more than two or three original 

 species. Wild Tulips ornament the fields of Southern Europe, and are 

 plentiful in fields about Constantinople, as well as in those of Palestine. 

 The beautiful varieties in our gardens have been chiefly propagated from the 

 kind named after Conrad Gesner {Tulipa gesneriana). This naturalist first 

 made the plant known by a botanical description and figure, he having, in 

 1559, seen the flower in a garden at Augsburg. The first Tulips planted in 

 England were sent hither from Vienna about the end of the sixteenth 

 century ; and by the middle of the seventeenth, the gambling practices con- 

 nected with Tulipomania, which prevailed especially in the Netherlands, had 

 filled all Europe with astonishment. 



