LILY FAMILY 



EREMURUS 



Erimurus robHstus. 



Eremurus is a Greek name referring to the tall and striking appear 

 ance of the plant in its desert home. 



Roots. — Clusters of fieshy fibres. 



ieai^M.— Radical, in dense rosettes, linear, two feet long, glabrous, 

 glaucous, roughish on the margin with minute recurved teeth. 



Flower-stem.— S\x to nine feet high, bearing a spike four feet long, 

 of rosy six-pointed stars. 



Fiower^.— Spreading, bell-shaped; the six segments slightly united 

 at the base. 



Stamens.'— Syx.; ovary three-celled; seeds one to four in each cell. 



Eremurus is one of the most striking plants that a northern 

 garden can produce. Native to the deserts of Turkestan, it hjSis 

 acquired the habit of putting forth tremendous energy for a short 

 period and then resting for the remainder of the year. When 

 spring growth begins there is an upheaval of the ground about the ;. 

 stem, the roots are so strong and so many. Large plants will 

 produce annually a flower-stalk nine feet high, and four feet of 

 this will be covered thick with starry blossoms. As this is a spike 

 and it takes considerable time for the flowering impulse to reach 

 the top, the blooming period lasts a month. Then the seeds 

 mature, the stalk dies, the leaves disappear, and all is over until 

 the next year. The plant needs plenty of water while flowering, 

 but none afterward. As it developed in an alkali desert it is very 

 grateful for wood ashes about its roots. Gardeners recommend 

 a mulch of dry leaves for the winter. The plant is hardy, interest- 

 ing, and effective. 



Among other Liliaceee in cultivation are the following varieties: 

 St. Bruno's Lily, Paradisea lilidstrum, a species from south- 

 ern Europe, which sends up from a tuft of flat, radical leaves a 

 simple scape bearing, perhaps, twenty fragrant white bells tipped 

 with green. 



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