LILIES 167 



But among the thousand flowers there would be two 

 great families which would stand out supreme above 

 all the rest, the lilies and the roses. And that is the 

 unanimous verdict, not only of gardeners, but of all 

 who in any degree love flowers. Their high popu- 

 larity is shown in the way in which so many flowers 

 which are neither roses nor lilies are so called. In 

 Miller's Dictionary of English Names of Plants there are 

 one hundred and eighty-eight plants named which are 

 called lilies, of which only seventy are true lilies 

 {lAUum) ; the rest are such plants as lily of the valley, 

 water-lily, St. Bernard's lily, Mariposa lily, Belladonna 

 lily, etc. In the same way, but not to the same 

 extent, flowers are called roses Avhich are no relations 

 to the genus rose, as the Christmas rose, guelder rose, 

 rock rose, rose campion, rose of Sharon, etc. To be 

 called a rose or a lily does not mean that the bearers of 

 the name are either roses or lilies, but it gives them a 

 diploma for grace and beauty. 



Their popularity is further shown by the great 

 number of books that have been written on the two 

 families. The strictly botanical books about them 

 reach a large number, while the books that sing their 

 praises incidentally must be almost innumerable. In 

 all gardening books they necessarily fill a large space, 

 and in all gardens with the slightest pretence to com- 



