BILY: 177 
always healthy, and increases rapidly, which it does not 
do in less favored situations. There are many other 
plants protected by snow in the same, or in a similar, 
manner. We notice on the Alps, at an elevation that 
permits of only four months of spring, summer and 
autumn, that the Primula auricula grows in the greatest 
luxuriance and profusion. There the frost never reaches 
it, as it is constantly and completely protected with 
snow through eight months of winter. In the valleys 
below, where there is no snow and but little frost, the 
same plant will not live through the winter without arti- 
ficial protection. It is not so much the cold that injures 
or destroys many of the species, as the disintegration 
which follows alternate freezing and thawing. We have 
often had bulbs of the Tigrinum, Umbellatum and Spe- 
ciosum (Lancifolium) remain on the surface during win- 
ter, without fatal injury, while those in the ground were 
completely destroyed. 
The question may be asked, and it is a pertinent 
one, ‘‘Do not our native Lilies have the same elements 
to contend against as those not indigenous to our soil, 
and having them, escape uninjured?” Certainly, yes; 
but nature always protects her own, and in collecting 
our native species, we see how wisely and beautifully it 
is done. The ZL. superbum is rarely found, excepting 
in woods, or marshy grounds; the low-growing trees or 
shrubs form a complete net-work of roots above and 
beneath the bulbs, affording the most ample protection 
against the action of the frost, should it penetrate the 
heavy mulching of leaves that nature has provided for 
their protection. The Z. canadense, or common Lily 
of northern meadows, forms its bulbs very deep, usually 
beyond the reach of frost, and has for a covering a heavy 
turf, than which there can be no better protection. 
This Lily, in our cultivated fields or nursery grounds, is 
by no means hardy. 
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