12 LILIES 



meant the madonna lily when, years ago, he 

 asked: "Have you seen but a whyte lillie 

 blow?" And it is to it that Maeterlinck refers 

 when he says: "The great white Lily, the old 

 lord of the gardens, the only authentic prince 

 among all the commonalty issuing from the 

 kitchen-garden, the ditches, the copses, the 

 pools and the moors, among the strangers come 

 from none knows where, with his invariable six- 

 petalled chalice of silver, whose nobility dates 

 back to that of the gods themselves the im- 

 memorial Lily raises his ancient sceptre, august, 

 inviolate, which creates around it a zone of 

 chastity, silence and light." Certainly either 

 of these quotations is appealing enough to bring 

 to every American dooryard that knows it not, 

 the lily of lilies the emblem of purity, the in- 

 spiration of poet and painter for centuries and 

 a benediction in the garden when June is melt- 

 ing into July. Of the two types, the one with 

 wide petals is the better. 



The next best garden lily, if sheer loveliness 

 as well as complete hardiness be considered, is 

 L. speciosum; which has no adequate common 

 name. Handsome lily is indefinite and the old 

 name, Japan lily, is confusing. Though a gar- 

 den flower in the western world since 1830, it 



