LILY FAMILY 



LILIACE^E LILY FAMILY 



Lilium superbum, L. 



Buff orange-yellow Turk's-cap Lily, 



Turk's-head Lily, 



August-September Nodding Lily, 



Wild Tiger Lily. 



Lilium: for derivation see philadelphicum. 

 Superbum: Latin for magnificent. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: damp thickets. 



THE PLANT: from bulbs, one inch to two inches in diameter; 

 the stems three feet to eight feet tall, stout, leafy. 



THE LEAVES : verticillate in threes or eights, or the upper 

 alternate; lanceolate; hairless on both surfaces; acuminate 

 at both ends; stemless or petioled; entire; prominently 

 and parallel- veined. 



THE FLOWERS: one to twenty or more, rarely solitary, on 

 long stems; the six divisions sometimes four inches long, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, purple-spotted; six stamens. 



THE FRUIT: a capsule. 



Even when not in bloom, this tall lily, with its straight 

 stem and clustered leaves, is beautiful, but doubly showy, 

 when the flowers, sometimes as many as twenty, rise like 

 a spreading candelabra above a tangled thicket of rose- 

 bushes and bay berry and grape-vines. The fresh flowers 

 are large and orange-yellow with purple spots, but become 

 much darker as they wither; the corolla segments curl 

 backwards at real maturity, but straighten out as the 

 flower dies, and the purple stamens hang loosely from out 

 the throat. As seen under the microscope the pollen is 

 white and beautifully shaped. 



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