AND THEIR CULTURE. 73 



M. Roezl, and introduced by him into Europe through M. Leichtlin. The 

 flowers are large and numerous, inodorous, orange-coloured, and spotted 

 with deep brown. 



"In a few catalogues we have seen a Californian Lily, L. Californicum, 

 Hort., and a Columbian Lily, L. Columljianum, Hort., the names indicating 

 the habitats of the species. These plants have neither been figured nor 

 described, and are wholly unknown to me. The preceding enumeration, 

 which has no pretension to completeness, shows that Linnaeus, in 1874, 

 was acquainted with 1) species ; Persoon, in 1805, knew of 3 7 ; Kunth, 

 in 1842, enumerated 40, which number should properly have been 37 ; 

 lastly, Spae, in a memoir bearing the date of 1847, the most recently- 

 published monograph of these lovely monocotyledons, reckoned 44 

 distinct species, which number should have been reduced to 39, or at most 

 40 species. I have myself been able to bring the number up to 68, in 

 spite of the suppression of certain members proposed to me as distinct 

 species, but which I hold to be simple varieties. 



" The genus Lily has thus in the course of twenty- three years received 

 an addition of fifty per cent, to the number of its known species ; an 

 enormous increase, testifying to the interest which these beautiful plants 

 have excited amongst scientific travellers. 



" The foregoing details also point to a very remarkable arrangement 

 of the known species in respect of the geographical distribution. 



" They belong exclusively to the southern portion of the continents of 

 Europe, Asia, and America, their presence on the latter being limited to 

 the southern half of North America. 



" Of these three regions, Asia has the greatest number of species ; 

 Europe the next ; America, if we take into consideration its vast extent 

 of surface in reference to the number of species hitherto described, ranks 

 last. 



" In Asia, the eastern portion is richest in species, the southern next, 

 then the west, lastly, Siberia and the north. 



" The genus is wholly unrepresented in the Southern Hemisphere. It 

 does not extend to the tropic of Cancer, or, if a few of its species reach 

 thus far south, as in India, it is only upon high mountain chains. 



" One consequence of this peculiar geographical distribution is that 

 Lilies, in our climate, are not hot-house plants. One and all of these 

 species may be grown in the open air, with due care to protect the more 

 delicate from frost. Their culture, therefore, is very simple. 



Since the foregoing remarks were written by Duchartre in 1870, 

 the following new forms have been added to our lists, and all arfr 

 fully described in the Synopsis further on. 



From Japan. (1). L. LONGIFLORUM VAR. POLIIS ALBO MARGINATIS,. 

 possessing a foliage more pubescent than the ordinary type, bluish 

 green, and margined broadly with silvery white; first obtained by 

 me in 1870. 



(2). Another variety of the same Lily, MADAME VON SIEBOLD, 

 distinguished by a very long and widely expanded tubular flower, 

 stated to attain the length of 7 inches. 



