LILIES 169 



are all true lilies. In the Middle Ages the lily must 

 have been a rare plant, for it is said that no representa- 

 tion of it in old illuminations is found earlier than the 

 fifteenth century, though it is certainly represented in 

 paintings before that time. Gerard, in 1597, described 

 twelve species, which his editor Johnson about forty 

 years later increased to twenty-one. Parkinson de- 

 scribes fourteen, but some of them are varieties. 

 Bauhin about the same time arranged all the then 

 known sorts of lilies under twenty-eight species, which 

 Linnaeus reduced to eight. Our latest authority, Mr. 

 Elwes (in his splendid monograph of the family), 

 describes forty-seven good species, besides varieties. 



Of these forty-seven species none are truly native in 

 Great Britain, though one (X. martagon) is considered 

 to be naturalised in Surrey ; but the geographical range 

 of the whole family is very extensive, so much so, that 

 M. de Cannart d'Hamale says : ' La nature a voulu 

 orner de ces belles fleurs toutes les contr6es du globe, h 

 I'exception peut-etre de I'Australie.' They are not, 

 however, found in Africa, or anywhere within the 

 tropics. Eight are found in Europe, thirteen in 

 America, and the remainder in Asia, chiefly in Japan 

 and the Himalayas. 



The cultivation of some of the lilies is difl&cult, and 

 nearly all of them are capricious, and refuse to follow 



