Observations on three species of Lilium. 293 



Art. III. Observations on three species of Ij'ilium and a vari- 

 ety^ with a comparison of two of the species. By John Lewis 

 Russell, Prof. Bot. Mass. Hon. Soc. &,c. &c. 



Lilium, a genus of plants of great beauty, is the type of a 

 small but interesting group or order, the Liliaceje, remarkable 

 for embracing individuals of humbler and of more commanding 

 merits; from the pretty golden £rytlir6nium to the towering and 

 palm-like Yiicca. Conspicuous in our meadows and sunny pas- 

 tures at this season, especially in the month of Jidy, are three 

 species and one variety worthy the attention of the florist. Who 

 has not noticed the elegant vermillion and claw-pointed perianth 

 of the common red lily, scarcely elevated above the clustered 

 fruit of the w^hortleberry and other kinds of Faccineum, or blend- 

 ing, sometimes, its richness of contour with the fragrance of the 

 sweet fern, (Comptonra.) .'' How many a child with juvenile 

 superstition has avoided to gather it, in regard to its reputed ef- 

 fects of transferring its freckled surface to the shining and merry- 

 face of any little bold and daring collector. How many have 

 admired its 0[)en, basket-like cup, })roduced by the narrowness 

 of its unguis and the sudden dilatation of its lamina! Under cul- 

 tivation, nor is its culture difficult, it produces one or more flow- 

 ers as treated with a richer or more scanty soil. 



Just peeping above the purple and green heads and panicles 

 of grasses in yonder meadow, you will notice the pendant golden 

 blossoms of the Canada lily. In a short ramble you may gather 

 specimens with one, three, six, a dozen or more of these nodding 

 and expanded bells, according as you find them uninfluenced by the 

 effects of the periodical visit of the scythe and other unfortunate in- 

 cidents. Occasionally, in some rich nook of an old wall, luxuriating 

 on the accumulated treasures of decayed foliage, you may discov- 

 er a more elevated plant, W'ith dark-red flowers, which, are you, 

 reader! a neophyte in botany, I advise you not to mistake, as 

 has often been done by others, older, perchance, and wiser in 

 such matters, for the third and most elegant indigenous species 

 of which New England can boast. But should your taste for 

 flowers ever have led you to their cultivation, be sure to care- 

 fully mark the spot, for the safe transplantation of this curious 

 variety to your flower-border at some more advanced season of 

 the year. The red variety of Z-ilium canadense has been often 

 supposed identical with the third species, viz. L. sujjerbum. 

 Under cultivation for a series of years, the original and the va- 

 riety becoming more beautiful in appearance and more command- 

 ing in aspect. Having in a very good condition of flower a few 

 fine plants of the genuine species of Lilium superbum, grown 

 from bulbs collected in Rhode Island, 1 have been led to observe 



