DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 213 
erect. The bulbs are large and fleshy, somewhat solid; 
they do not keep well long out of the ground. When 
the stem dies down, the root should be taken up and re- 
planted, if necessary; but this need not be done oftener 
than once in four or five years. They should be planted 
four inches deep, in a rich, deep garden soil. It is by 
some botanists called Petilium imperialis. 
F. Pérsica,— The Persian Fritillary or Persian Lily, 
bears a spike of brownish-purple flowers, growing at the 
top of the stem in the form of a pyramid; they open in 
May ; stems three feet high; bulb similar to the last, ex- 
cept it is more elongated. To be:treated in every way 
like the Crown Imperial. 
F. meleagris.—The Common Fritillary, or Chequered 
Lily.—Is sometimes called the Guinea Hen Flower, on ac- 
count of its chequered or spotted flowers. There are 
many varieties , the colors, various shades of brown, pur- 
ple, and yellow, curiously mottled, spotted or chequered. 
The bulbs are about the size of those of the crocus, of the 
character of the other Fritillary bulbs, but more flatten- 
ed; stems eight or ten inches high, with one or more 
gracefully-drooping, bell-shaped flowers, in April or May; 
to be planted in groups in good garden soil, two inches 
deep. They should not be kept long out of the ground. 
It is a natgve of England and the South of Europe. 
It is most probably of the Crown Imperial, that Moore 
speaks in the following lines; not the Persian Lily, com- 
monly so called, since he describes the color as golden :— 
“Once Emir! thy unheeding child, 
*Mid all this havoc, bloomed and smiled,— 
Tranquil on some battle plain 
The Persian Lily shines and towers, 
Before the combats reddening strain 
Hath fallen upon her golden flowers.”—Fire Worshippers, * 
