CHAPTER IV 



SUB-GENUS III 



LILIUM TIGRINUM (China), Archelirion 

 Tiger Lily 



Though introduced from China not much more than 

 a hundred years ago, the Tiger Lily is among those 

 that we cherish as old English garden flowers, so 

 familiar is it, not only in our gardens, but in old 

 pictures and in the samplers and embroideries of our 

 great-grandmothers. 



Excepting the later blooms of L, auratum^ some of 

 which go on till the end of October, the Tiger is the 

 latest flowering of our Lilies, being in full bloom in 

 September. Its bold, turn-cap form is so well known 

 that it can want no description, except to draw atten- 

 tion to its remarkable colour, a soft salmon-orange, 

 that can be matched by but few other flowers, nearest 

 perhaps by some of the Cape bulbs, such as Homeria 

 collina, and one of the Ixias. The black spots and 

 dark stems and deep-brown, rust-coloured anthers 

 combine to make a grand garden flower. 



It is about the only Lily that we have in a good 

 double form, for though there is a so-called double 

 L. candidum, it is a wretched, misshapen thing, not 

 worth growing. 



