2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV 



The crown imperial is believed to bo the imperial fritillary, which 

 with the tulips is nearest to the true lily in botanical classification, but 

 no one would ordinarily speak of a fritillary or a tulip as a lily. On 

 the other hand, the flower-de-luce is a lily only in name. The fleur- 

 de-lis or royal lily of France is believed to have been originally an 

 Iris, probably Iris pseiidacorus, the Yellow Flag, or rather a white 

 representative of that flower. With Shakespeare the lily is always 

 pure white, the type being Lilium candidum of English gardens. 

 Harry V. could hardly have referred to a yellow flower when he said 

 to Katherine : " Shall we not ? What sayest thou ? My fair 

 flower-de-luce ? " To which she very properly replied : " I do not 

 know dat." The flower-de-luce was borne in the Arms of England for 

 many years, and what is of more importance it still marks the north 

 point of the compass-card. An old traveller writes : " But sailing 

 further it veers its lily to the west," which is just what happens ofi 

 the voyage from India to Europe. There are no representatives of 

 the order Iridem south of the Himalayas and very few in our gardens, 

 the Gladiolus, that much mis-pronounced word of short syllables, 

 being a notable exception. A little spotted flower, orange and red, 

 Pardanthus, or Belamcauda, seems to have established itself on Singhar, 

 a survival from the gardens that once flourished in that neglected spot. 

 The place of the Iris is taken by the showy Canna belonging to the 

 great tropical order Scitaminece. A member of this order, Kcempferia 

 scaposa, is called the Rice lily. In the month of September the 

 plateau between Lonauli and Karli, on either side of the railway, is 

 white with these delicate three-petalled flowers. Belonging to the 

 same order one of the wild turmerics or arrowroots, Curcuma 

 angustifolia, probably with beautiful coma of pink bracts, is often called 

 the Khandala lily, and the orchid men of Mahableshwar commonly 

 aive this name to the wild ginger with yellow coma, or the white 

 arrowroot. Another well-known plant which has no claim to the 

 name but the whiteness of its spathe is the Cobra lily, Arisfsma 

 Murrayi, a member of the order AroidecBy like the English Cuckoo- 

 pint or Lords and Ladies, to which it is nearly related. Another 

 plant of the same order often seen in windows at home is Richardia 

 afrkana, called the Arum lily or Trumpet lily or Lily of the 



