Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



is only one Italian species so near to the white lily 

 as to justify Ovid's word. This is Lilium bulbiferum, 

 with its variety, as Arcangeli ranks it, L. croceum, 

 which the Romans are not likely to have distin- 

 guished from the type. The figures in Curtis's 

 Botanical Magazine (L. candidum 278, L. bulbi- 

 ferum 1018, and L. croceum, given with a wrong 

 name, 36) show the likeness of these plants in habit 

 and perianth. The objection that nothing very like 

 letters can be found on them applies, I believe, 

 equally to any other Italian lily. I cannot resist 

 the conclusion that Ovid meant what our forefathers 

 called the red lily . 



It does not, however, follow that Virgil's plant 

 is the same as Ovid's. Martyn supposed himself 

 to find both in the purple martagon, L. martagon 

 {B.M., 893). He sinks, as Johnson would have 

 said, the wide differences between this plant and 

 the white lily. In the latter the perianth is erect 

 and its divisions but little reflexed, while the mar- 

 tagon belongs to the Turk's-cap group, in which the 

 perianth is cernuous, and its divisions very nauch 

 reflexed. The stem leaves of the martagon are in 

 distant whorls, while those of the white lily are 

 irregular and even crowded. It is hard to believe 

 that the martagon is Ovid's plant. 



On the question of colour Virgil does not give us 

 much help, for his ' suave rubens ' and ' ferrugineus ' 

 have too wide a range. He applies both to the dye 

 of the Tyrian shell-fish. The ram in the fourth 

 Eclogue has his fleece coloured ' suave rubenti 



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