The Lily. 131 



plants. Beautiful and rich as many of them confessedly are, this 

 exceeds them all, bearing as it does a pyramid of yellowish red 

 flowers, from twenty to fifty in number, in full bloom in the 

 early part of July. As this is rather more tender than most of 

 the other Lilies, it is advisable to cover the bulbs with old tan- 

 ners' bark or coal ashes during the winter, which may be removed 

 after the frost is over and before the plants appear above ground. 

 Where these plants grow naturally and plentifully, the roots are 

 frequently eaten as food, being first roasted under the embers. 

 The ladies of Europe have long held in the highest esteem a 

 cosmetic for the skin which is prepared from these flowers by 

 means of a vapor bath. It is said to improve and preserve the 

 freshness of the complexion, and remove pimples and freckles. 



" The Lily's height bespoke command, 



A fair imperial flower, 

 She seemed designed for Flora's hand, 



The sceptre of her power." 



Observe the rising Lily's snowy grace, 



Observe the various vegetable race, 



They neither toil nor spin, but careless grow, 



Yet see how warm they blush ! how bright they glow ! 



What regal vestments can with them compare, 



What king so shiny, and what queen so fair 1 



It is not poets alone who half-worship flowers. What an 

 enthusiastic devotion is that which sends a man from the attrac- 

 tions of home, the ties of neighborhood, the bonds of country, 

 to range plains, valleys, hills and mountains, in search of a new 

 flower! What a spirit must have animated hundreds of those 

 botanists who have sacrificed every personal convenience and 

 every selfish motive for the sake of illustrating the volume of 

 nature, and opening almost a new existence upon those whose 

 researches are necessarily limited. No wonder that the most 

 lovely ornament for the young virgin was a wreath of flowers ; 

 the most glorious distinction of the warrior a chaplet of bays. 

 No wonder that the bier of the early dead was strewn with 

 these passing emblems of a passing existence. — Tyas. 



