Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 43 



TURK'S-CAP LILY (Lilium superbum) is a 



most beautiful flower; it is very appropriately speci- 

 fically called superbum. It is prolific in bloom almost 

 beyond belief. One has to see the tall, stately, leafy 

 stalk, surrounded by a drooping cluster containing 

 from thirty to forty brilliant orange flowers, in order 

 to realize the impressiveness of this flower at its 

 best. The bright sepals are always reflexed, some- 

 times so much so that they remind one of a coiled 

 spring. These lilies apparently know their own beau- 

 ty for, be the surrounding foliage high or low, they 

 will rear their flowering heads above it. They are 

 cross-fertilized chiefly by bees and some of the larger 

 butterflies. One has but to touch the large pendant 

 anthers to get a practical demonstration of how the 

 pollen is attached to the body of a bee and carried 

 to another flower, there to be deposited on the sticky 

 stigma of the mature style. Naturally a species so 

 prolific of flower and so capable of being cross-ferti- 

 lized by foreign agency is in little danger of having 

 its numbers lessened. In fact, wherever it gets a 

 foothold it spreads with great rapidity; a habit that 

 I am sure is regretted by none who admire this beau- 

 tiful lily, and these number all who have ever had 

 the opportunity to see it. 



The flowers, nodding at the top of a stem ranging 

 from 2 to 7 feet in height, have a six parted perianth, 

 orange-red, thickly spotted with purplish brown; the 

 six stamens have large, long brown anthers extend- 

 ing far beyond the reflexed sepals. The lanceolate 

 leaves are crowded along the upper stem and whorled 

 about its lower portion. Blooms abundantly in rich 

 soil, during July and August, from N. B. to Minn, and 

 southwards. 



Lilium carolinianum is a quite similar species with 

 broader leaves and only one to three flowers. Found 

 on the borders of mountain woods from Va. south- 

 wards. 



