186 



LIMAX. 



berries; and there are rarieties 

 witli green, wMte, and yellow berries, 

 and variegated leaves. Ligmtrum 

 lucidum, and L. spicdtum, are very 

 ornamental sub-evergreen shrubs or 

 low trees, natives of China and 

 Nepal ; but they are liable to be 

 injured by very severe winters. 

 These two species are propagated by 

 budding or grafting on the common 

 Privet. 



Lilac. — See Syri'nga, 

 Li'Liusi. — Liliacece, or TuUpacece. 

 — The lily is the most splendid genus 

 of bulbous plants. All the species 

 are beautiful, and most of them are 

 hardy. LUium cdndidum grows 

 I from three feet to five feet high, and 

 j its pure white flowers, which appear 

 in June, are well known from being 

 placed by painters in the hands of 

 the Virgin. L. hulhiferura, a native 

 of Italy, has orange flowers, which 

 appear in June and July, and the 

 plant is equally high with the pre- 

 i ceding species. L. x^T^'^il'^delphicuin 

 ! grows five feet or six feet high, and 

 j produces its fine scarlet flowers in 

 I August. L. Pomponium is a splen- 

 i did species with scarlet flowers, pro- 

 } duced in May and June ; and L. 

 ' tigrhnirii grows six feet high, and 

 I produces its black-spotted orange 

 j flowers in August and September. 

 There are many other hardy species 

 in cultivation ; and L. exlmium, L. 

 japonicum, L. longijlbrum, and some 

 others eminently beautiful and 

 chiefly with white flowers, require 

 the protection of the greenhouse, or 

 a cold frame. The species which are 

 natives of America thrive best in 

 sandy peat kept moist when the 

 plants are in a growing state ; but 

 the others grow freely in common 

 garden-soil. They are allreadily pro- 

 pagated by offsets, which they produce 

 in abundance. The bulbs of all the 

 species are probably edible when 

 cooked, for those of L. pomponium 



are used in Kamtschatka in the same 



way as potatoes are in Britain ; and 



they all belong to what are called the 



I scaly bulbs, which may remain several 



j years in the ground without taking 



I up, and which when they are taken 



I up, shouldbe planted again as soon as 



possible. The beautiful Japan Lilies 



{L. lanceolatum and its varieties) 



^ are now frequently planted in the 



I open air during the flowering season, 



I and are certainly some of the most 



' beautiful plants that can be imagined 



of the Lily tribe in the open air. 



j Numerous hybrids have also been 



raised between the greenhouse and 



hardy kinds, some of which are very 



handsome. 



Lilt. — See Li'lium. 



Lily of the Valley. — See Con- 



VALLA^RIA. 



Li'max. — This is the scientific 

 name for the slug, one of the most 

 destructive creatures in existence to 

 a garden. The slug differs from the 

 snail in having no apparent shell, 

 though it has the i-udiments of a shell 

 buried in the upper part of its body. 

 Like the snail also, it can only crawl 

 when the earth is moist with rain or 

 dew : as when the ground is dry it 

 absorbs too much of the slime which 

 both slugs and snails are obliged to 

 discharge from their bodies to enable 

 them to glide along. There are 

 many kinds of slugs, nearly all of 

 which are destructive to vegetation ; 

 the only exception being the shell- 

 slug (Testa cellus), which lives on 

 earth-worms. These ci'eatures are 

 by no means common ; but they are 

 found in the earth near hothouses, in 

 the neighbourhood of London, and 

 they may be known by their dirty 

 yellow colour, and by their having a 

 little scale-like shell, -w^hich natui-a- 

 lists call the shield or buckler, on the 

 outside and on the highest part of the 

 body, near the breathing-hole, which 

 it is probably intended to protect. 



