AND THEIR CULTURE. 67 



" Within a few years of the close of the last century very little was 

 known of the species peculiar to the south of Europe, the Levant, and the 

 western part of North America. In 1774, Linnaeus described nine species, 

 five of which were indigenous to the old continent, viz., Candidum, 

 Bidbiferum, Pomponimn, Ghalcedonicum, Martagon ; and three were peculiar 

 to North America, viz., Sujierbtim, Fhiladelpliicum^ and Canadense ; the 

 ninth was common to the southern parts of both continents, KariiscJiathense. 

 About the same time Gouan named and described the Pyrenean Lily, 

 Fijrenaicum. A few years later, in 1786, Chaix distinguished as a separate 

 species the Orange Lily, Croceum, found in Dauphigny and on the Alps, 

 which had previously been regarded as a variety of Bulbiferum ; whilst in 

 America, Walter made known the charming Catesby Lily, Catesbcci, found 

 in the swamps of the United States. Towards the close of the eighteenth 

 century a notable addition was made to our knowledge of these plants, by 

 the publication of Thunberg's work upon the flora of Japan, previously 

 treated of by Kosmpfer alone, but which for more than fifty years had 

 supplied science and our European gardens with a goodly number of 

 remarkable plants of all kinds. Thunberg made us acquainted in his 

 memoir with five species, viz., Gordifolium, Speciosum, Longijiorum, 

 Laitcifuliuin, Maculatum, ;* the history of which he completed in another 

 work, published in 1811, wherein he described two more new species, 

 EleganSff and Japonicum.X Two of these same Japanese species are the 



* Another little kno^^•n Japanese species, and one whicli, like the preceding, is not 

 common in European gardens, is that which Thunberg (" Flora," p. 135) originally con- 

 sidered to be L. Canadense, but ■which he referred to his Maculatum in 1794. Later 

 still he gave a figure of it in the "Mem. de I'Aead. Imper. des Sciences de St. Peters- 

 burgh," iii., p. 204, pl. 5, fig. 1. Judging by this figure and the description which 

 accompanies it, the Spotted Lily is rather more than a foot high, its glabrous stem is 

 rounded, striated or furrowed, unbranched as far as the inflorescence. It bears numerous 

 leaves of moderate or small dimensions, lanceolate, tapering at the base, but still sessile, 

 with several nerves prominent on the under surface. These leaves form a sort of false 

 verticil at the base of the inflorescence. This latter consists of from four to six flowers 

 of moderate size, bell-shaped, with the extremity of the segments slightly rolled back. 

 The colour is indicated as blood-red, marked in the interior of the flower with points 

 and spots of deep purple. Dr. Asa Gray ("Diagnostic Characters of Xew Spec, of 

 Pha-nog. Plants, collected in Japan by Ch. Wright," "Mem. of the Amer. Acad.,"' vi., 

 p. 434), cites this plant, with doubt, as a varietj' of L. Sv/jpcrlum (Linm-eus), a 

 detennination open to criticism. This Lily is now referred by Mr. Baker (and we think 

 correctly) to the form now known and described, in his Synopsis, as L. Medeohides. 



The Lily exhibited at the Pioyal Horticultural Society, June 17, 1874, and figured in 

 Florist, Sept., 1874, as L. Maculatv/in, is really L. Hansoni. 



t The Japanese Lily, which Thunberg called Z. Elcgans ("Mem. de I'Acad. de St. 

 Petersb.," iii., p. 203, pd. 3, fig. 2), and which he at first in his "Flora," p. 135, had 

 called L. Pltiladclphicum, and afterwards, in his memoir of the plants of Jajian ("Trans. 

 Linn. Soc.,"ii., p. 333), L. Bv.llifcrum, is described as about 18 inches high, with a 

 smooth, simple, rounded stem ; its leaves of moderate size, alternate, and the stem 

 terminated by a large, flesh-coloured, bell-shaped flower, the oblong segments of which 

 are more or less turned back at the extremities. Thunberg compares this species to 

 L. Biollnfcrum, from which it is distinguished by its simple, smooth stem, neither 

 striated or divided ; by its scattered leaves of a more ovate-oblong form ; and lastly, bj* 

 the pieces of the perianth, which are oval, and not narrowed into a stalk at their base. 

 The figure which he gives is very indirterent. It has now been made clear that this 

 description and name applies to the subgenus now called Thunberg ianum, after its 

 introducer Thunberg. 



t It is not easy to ascertain what is the plant which Thunberg designated in 1783 in 



