THE WHITE LILY. 



Lllium candidum. 



HE common white lily is one of 

 the noblest as well as commonest 

 flowers of the English garden, 

 and a lean ideal of the tenantry 

 of the terrestrial paradise of the 

 delectable Lady Corisande. Its 

 manner is that of a wilding, 

 for if a few scales broken from 

 a bulb are scattered about a 

 irden, some of them will be- 

 come true lilies in time; and 

 wherever it is planted and left 

 alone for a few years, it justifies 

 the confidence reposed in it by 

 flowering freely, and increasing by the 

 formation of new bulbs, so that small 

 clumps become large clumps, and may 

 be periodically divided. But it is not 

 a wilding here, and is but rarely met 

 with as an escape from the garden. It is a native of the 

 interesting country called the Levant, and as the Levant 

 includes Palestine, it is by no means improper to consider 

 this as the " lily of the field " referred to by our Lord in 

 the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew vi. 28). If, however, 

 we seek for a dislinct flower as the lily of the Holy Land, 

 we must take note of Canticles vi. 2, where the lily is 



