LILIUM CANADENSE. AMERICAN YELLOV/ LILY, 27 



decorum, that the new world may fully atone for the Injustice, 

 for of the numerous species indigenous to America, there is not 

 one white among them all. 



Our present species, Lilhtm Canadcnsc, or American yellow 

 Lily, we believe to be the earliest of all our native species to 

 flower; for though it is not so stated in our text-books, it is not 

 unusual to find it in bloom in the vicinity of Philadelphia the last 

 of May or very early in June. This season (1878) particularly 

 it was noted that not a single flower could be obtained on the 

 20th of June, all being over blown by that time. The flowers 

 vary very much in color from deep yellow to a rich crimson in 

 different plants. Much remains yet to be learned of Lilies, and 

 especially of this species. There is a form of it from Mississippi 

 which commences to flower just as the form from New Jersey goes 

 out of bloom, and which produces no seeds. The flowers also 

 are of a richer color, and more revolute than Wood's description 

 would imply. Further it will amply repay the student to watch 

 the behavior of the flowers when about to seed. When the flower 

 first opens it hangs on its sub-erect stem, the pistil curving but 

 little upwards. It makes no growth whatever for several days, 

 or until the petals begin to fade, — then the pistil takes an upward 

 curve, sometimes so much as to have its apex pointing towards 

 the ovary. For several days after this the ovary or pistil remains 

 stationary, when at length the former assumes a straight line 

 with the pedicel, and finally erect, in which posidon the seed 

 vessel matures. We thus see that growth in nature is not by 

 regular advances ; but is by leaps, or as we say, rhythmical. 



There is a great general resemblance between the species of 

 lilies, and it is not easy to distinguish one from another. The 

 yellow Lily approaches the L. s2Lperbum, but is generally out of 

 flower before that commences to open ; the divisions of the peri- 

 anth or flower cup as a general rule do not turn back quite so 

 much, — but a good distincUon lies in the terminal character of 

 the flowers in the best specimens of our species ; that is, the 

 flowers seem to come out in a bunch or cluster at the top of the 



