TURK>S-CAP LILY 



Flowers. — Lily-bells, varying from orange to yellow, 

 borne on long, slender, spreading peduncles from the 

 summit of the flowering stem and often numbering twenty 

 or more in bloom at one time. The perianth segments 

 are strongly recurved. 



Stamens. — Six, long, pale green, with large brown 

 anthers. 



Pistil. — Ovary three-celled; style long; stigma three- 

 lobed. 



Fruit. — Oblong capsule, containing many seeds. 



Pollinated by flies and bees. Nectar-bearing. 



The Turk's-Cap is our finest native Lily, sometimes 

 confused with the Meadow Lily which it resembles 

 but which it surpasses. The blossom at maturity 

 is not bell-shaped — it opens much farther, the six 

 sepal-petals curve so far backward beyond the middle 

 as to expose the stamens nearly their entire length, 

 so that with a Httle imagination it may be a turban. 

 As in all our Lilies, nectar is secreted in a groove at the 

 base of each of the petals and the inner surface is 

 sprinkled with bright dots and lines, all pathfinders 

 to lead the bees to the sweets. 



A blooming panicle, a living candelabrum of many 

 arms, each bearing a Lily with turned-back petals 

 dancing in the sunlight under a summer sky, is a gor- 

 geous vision, which like Wordsworth's Daffodils may 

 be reproduced when, 



"In vacant or in pensive mood, 

 They flash upon that inward eye 

 Which is the bliss of solitude." 



The plant's beauty often proves its destruction; 

 it seems so difficult for many of us to "Love the Wood 

 Rose and leave it on its stalk." If the impulse is too 



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