126 



NOTES ON LILIES , 



expanded; bracts, boat- shaped, 

 large, ovate, caducous; pedi- 

 cels, 3 to 12 lines long, at first 

 almost nodding, but ascending 

 when bearing fruit; perianth, 

 funnel-shaped, fragrant, 5 to 6 

 inches long, white, tinged with 

 purple 011 the inside, and with 

 green on the outside; tube, 

 gradually widened from the 

 base (where it is 6 or 7 lines in 

 diameter) to the neck (where 

 it is from 18 to 21 lines in 

 diameter) : segments, oblan- 

 ceolate, 9 to 12 lines broad at 

 the base of the upper quarter 

 of their length, gradually nar- 

 rowed towards the base, inner 

 ones broader; stamens, two- 

 thirds the length of the 

 perianth; filaments, flattened 

 downwards, nearly straight, 3 

 to 3 inches long; anthers, 

 yellow, 3 to 4 lines long ; pol- 



Giant Lily (L. 0-iqanteum ). } 11 T i i 



len, yellow ; ovary, cylindrical, 



1 inch long ; style, scarcely curved, 1, or nearly twice the length of 

 the ovary ; capsule, broadly oblong, 2 or 3 inches long, obtuse-angled, 

 umbilicated at the apex; neck, large, top-shaped. Temperate region 

 of the whole Himalayan chain, from Kumaon and Gurvvhal to Khasia* 

 and Sikkim, at an altitude of from 5,000 to 10,000 feet. " It flowers 

 in the rainy reason, from May to the end of July." Wallich. 



NOTE A peculiarity of this species (and, \ve believe, of Cordifolium also), is that seedling 

 bulbs or offsets grow on increasing in size till in a period of from three to five years a 

 large bulb is formed, in the case of Giganteum, from 5 to 7 inches in length, and 10 to 15 

 inches in diameter, hitherto the foliage has been broad and low growing ; but when the 

 bulb has attained the size mentioned, it throws up in the spring a much thicker bud, by 

 many likened to a young cabbage, whence a stout stem arises, sometimes 6 inches in 

 diameter, and from 5 to 10 feet high, studded with numerous flowers, resembling some- 

 what the flowering spike of an Aloe, forming a striking and beautiful object. In the 

 meanwhile, the bulb exhausted by the process, decays and disappears, leaving from three 

 to five small offsets at the base of the stem, which in due course, increase in size, and 

 under favourable circumstances, repeat the performance. 



The native name in Assam is " Kalans Tatti." 



