80 WHIT* LILY. 



bulb.* The stem is simp e, erect, cylindrical, leafy, and from two 

 to three feet in height. The leaves are alternate, scattered, nume- 

 rous, elliptical, and lanceolate, very smooth, undulated, and of a 

 light, shining -green colour. The flowers are axillary and terminal, 

 of large size, brilliant whiteness, and fragrant odour ; each flower 

 is supported on a short bracteated peduncle, at first erect, afterwards 

 slightly drooping. The perianth (calyx) is campanulate, consisting 

 of six, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, somewhat revolute segments, tra- 

 versed internally by a nectareous longitudinal channel, three 

 alternately rather smaller. The six stamens are furnished with 

 subulate filaments, and oblong, versatile, yellow anthers, which 

 burst inwardly. The pistil consists of a superior, oblong, trigonal, 

 furrowed germen, a cylindrical, clavate style, and a trigonal, obtuse, 

 downy stigma. The fruit is a three-sided, oblong capsule, three- 

 celled, three-valved, many-seeded ; the seeds packed upon one 

 another in two rows. Plate, 30 fig. 1, (a) pistil and stamens; 

 (b) capsule; (c) seeds. 



The White Lily, one of the oldest inhabitants of the flower-gar- 

 den, and universally admired, is thought to have come originally 

 from the Levant. Haller found it in Switzerland, and De Candolle 

 on the Jura mountains, apparently wild. It flowers in June and 

 July. 



The generic name is derived from the Celtic li signifying white- 

 ness, the flowers being considered the emblem of whiteness. 

 The Greek term for the Lily was Keipiov or kipw, it was 

 also called xpwov in common with the Narcissus, Hyacinth, &c 

 There is no doubt that the Lilium album of Pliny f is our White 

 Lily. The ancients feigned that the flowers were originally of a 

 deep-yellow colour, but when Jupiter removed Hercules from the 

 breast of Juno, some of her milk falling upon them rendered them 

 white. Thus Ovid :— 



"Dam puer Alcides Diva? vagus ubera suxit 

 Junonis, dulci pressa sapore fuit ; 

 Ambrosiumque alto lac destillavit Olympo 

 In terras fusura Lilia pulchra dedit." 



* The bulb, with its attached fibres, is commonly regarded as a root and 

 termed a naked bulb ; but the fibres constitute the true root, and the bulb, 

 as it is called, is rather a species of bud or subterranean stem. 



t Hist. lib. xxi. c. 5. 



