Beauty and 
use of the 
Lily 
THE LILY 
ILIES are among the noblest of all plants, and it is little 
wonder that their stateliness, grace and beauty have com- 
mended them to all ages and all races of the civilised world. 
They have formed the theme of poets; they have found 
a place in the symbolic and other art of the painter; they 
have been enshrined in the best works of many prose writers ; 
and their legendary lore is extensive and of the deepest 
interest to all students of the fascinating study of folk-lore. 
To the gardener the Lilies appeal with especial force, for it is 
the flower-lover who can best appreciate the stateliness, the 
grace, the exquisite colouring, texture and perfume of so many 
of these flowers, without whose presence the garden is devoid of 
some of its principal charms. They give us plants of varying 
habit, from the fine Lilium giganteum, with its stately stems, 
surmounted by a spire of trumpet-like flowers, or the noble 
L. auratum, the Queen of Lilies, to some of the more humble 
species, which endear themselves to us by less opulent charms, 
although ofttimes endowed with glowing colours. 
Nor are there many plants of such varying requirements, 
or which so lend themselves to the different conditions of our 
gardens and their precincts. They give us subjects for the 
formal flower-bed ; they afford us plants of the greatest beauty 
for the border; they yield us many beautiful occupants of the 
shrubbery and wild garden; while in pots they adorn the 
conservatory or the dwelling, thus bringing their beauties within 
the reach of all. Even the window of the town house may 
174 
