WOOD LILY 



The cups of the Wood Lily differ very materially 

 from those of the Meadow Lily. To begin with they 

 stand erect, one to three at the top of the stem; in 

 color they are each a blaze of scarlet blurred and dotted 

 with gold. The neck of each flower-bell is distinctly 

 opened by the sudden narrowing of the lower part 

 of each of the six, separate, flaring, sepal-petals into 

 slender almost stem-like bases. Each of these broadens 

 decidedly toward the end and finally tapers to a blunt 

 tip. Within, on the upper half of the petals the color 

 becomes intense, below it is paler. The six long, 

 pink stamens have dark brown anthers and the long 

 style has a brown stigma. This is the only native 

 Lily of the north whose bells are not recurved; its cup 

 is open to the sun and one finds it on midsummer 

 days standing erect, a blaze of orange and gold amid 

 the grass of upland meadows or glowing like a torch 

 in the shadow of the hill forest — a Lily to its heart's 

 core. 



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