LILY FAMILY 



amid its clustered bells, and no pictured saint but is ennobled by 

 the presence of this matchless flower. With all these associations 

 gathered about it, the plant was brought to this country to be 

 our Easter Lily. But however the florist proposes, in the end the 

 climate disposes. Outdoor bloom in April and May was obviously 

 quite impossible and when forcing was attempted the plant proved 

 wilful. Our best Madonna Lilies are now the outdoor product, 

 blooming in June, thriving in any good soil and rejoicing in abun- 

 dant light and air. The secret of success in their culture is to let 

 them alone after they are once well established. 



EASTER LILY. BERMUDA LILY 



Lllium longiflbrum var. eximium. 



Native to the temperate regions of Japan, China, and Formosa. 



Bulb. — Globose. 



Stem. — One to three feet high, erect. 

 Leaves. — Scattered, abundant. 



Flowers. — Trumpet-shaped, nearly horizontal ; fragrant; waxy-white; 

 tube scarcely widened from base to middle. 



Until the early eighties the Easter Lily of America was the 

 Madonna, Lilium candidum, the well-known white-flowered 

 species of southern Europe. But the Madonna Lily did not take 

 kindly to forcing — florists could never be quite certain when 

 their lilies would bloom — and to have a fine crop come into mar- 

 ket one or two weeks after Easter sometimes spelled ruin to 

 the grower. Hence the introduction to the trade by William K. 

 Harris, a Philadelphia florist, of the Bermuda Lily under the name 

 Lilium Lidrrisii, was hailed with enthusiasm. The new species, 

 though received by way of Bermuda, had long been known to 

 botanists as a lily of China and Japan. This, however, was quite 

 immaterial to the florist, the name was nothing, the native land 

 was even less; here was a white lily that could be relied upon 

 to come when called, and that was everything. 



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