126 



NOTES ON LILIES 



expanded; bracts, boat-shaped, 

 large, ovate, caducous ; pedi- 

 cels, 3 to 12 lines long, at first 

 almost nodding, but ascending 

 when bearing fruit ; perianth, 

 funnel-shaped, fragi-ant, 5 to 6 

 inches long, white, tinged with 

 purple on the inside, and with 

 green on the outside ; tube, 

 gradually widened from the 

 base (where it is 6 or 7 lines in 

 diameter) to the neck (where 

 it is from 18 to 21 Ihies in 

 diameter) : segments, oblan- 

 ceolate, 1) to 12 lines broad at 

 the base of the upper quarter 

 of their length, gradually nar- 

 rowed towards the base^ inner 

 ones broader; stamens, two- 

 thirds the length of the 

 perianth; filaments, flattened 

 ^i.. downwards, nearly straight, o 

 \-'i,^ to 3^- inches long; anthers, 

 yellow, 3 to 4 lines long ; pol- 

 •^ ' -^ leUj yellow ; ovar\% cylmdncal, 



1 inch long; style, scarcely curved, H, or nearly twice the length of 

 the ovary ; capsule, bi-oadly oblong, 2 or 3 inches long, obtuse-angled, 

 umbilicated at the apex ; neck, large, top-shaped. Temperate region 

 of the whole Himalayan chain, from Kuuiaon and Gurvvhal to Khasia* 

 and Sikkim, at an altitude of from 5,0U0 to 10,000 feet, " It flowers 

 in the rainy reason, from May to the end of July." — Wallich. 



-J^^ 



jf OXE — A peculiarity of this species (and, we believe, of CorcUfaUum also), is that seedling 

 bnlbs or oifsets grow on increasing in size till in a ]ieriod of from three to five years a 

 larf'e bulb is formed, in the case ft\ Gigantewii, from 5 to 7 inches in length, and 10 to 15 

 inches in diameter, hitherto the foliage has been broad and low growing ; but when the 

 bulb has attained the size mentioned, it throws up in the spring a much thicker 1)ud, by 

 many likened to a young cabbage, whence a stout stem aiiscs, sometimes 6 inches in 

 diameter, and from 5 to 10 feet high, studded with numerous flowers, resembling some- 

 ■what the flowering spike of an Aloe, forming a striking and beautiful object. In the 

 meanwhile, the bulb exhausted by the process, decays and disappears, leaving from three 

 to five small offsets at the base of the stem, whii-h in due course, increase in size, and 

 under favourable circumstances, repeat the performance. 



* The native name in Assam is " Kalang Tatti. " 



