1 82 ST!)e <attren'* JStorg. 



and low grounds, the tallest and most numerous 

 flowered of our native lilies. So variable is this 

 in its size, shape, color, markings, and the num- 

 ber of its flowers, that it is difficult to specify it 

 distinctly. It is a question, moreover, just when 

 it becomes concurrent with L. Canadense ru- 

 brum, as would not unfrequently seem to be the 

 case. The most common forms of the species 

 bear dingy red or yellowish-red flowers, and vary 

 greatly in the robustness of the plants. L. super- 

 bum, as usually sent out, is anything but the 

 superb lily it is in certain favored localities, and 

 none who have only seen its more common forms 

 have any conception of its stately beauty in its 

 rarer and perfected state. Along the Old Colony 

 Railway, between Newport and Boston, and on 

 the Shore Line between New London and Boston, 

 the species is seen at its best. For miles it fol- 

 lows one along the. railway, steeping whole 

 meadows in scarlet, the color of the flowers 

 varying from the most intense bright crimson 

 to dingy yellowish-red. There in the salt air it 

 revels even on dry, poor soil, bearing from three 

 to fifteen or more commonly three to seven flow- 

 ers on a head. 



In its cultivated state, where well grown, the 

 large form is still more free flowering, the bulbs 

 throwing up from a dozen to three dozen blooms 



