Yellow Day Lily. 315 



Below a circling fence its leaves are seen, 



Wrinkled and keen ; 

 No grazing cattle through their prickly round 



Can reach to wound ; 

 But, as they grow where nothing is to fear, 

 Smooth and unann'dthe countless leaves appear, 



The Ilex Opaca — American Holly is, as Bigelow re- 

 marks, the more interesting as it is one of the few evergreen 

 trees which we possess which are not of the coniferous tribe. 

 Its small flowers, of a greenish white, grow in bunches, coming 

 out in the month of June, and are succeeded by the red berries, 

 which fall very late. 



Yellow Day Lily. 



The Hemerocallis Flava — Yellow Day Lily, is in 

 the class Hexandria, order Monogynia. Its generic characters 



are : Corolla, six-parted, tube-shaped funnel form ; stamens 



declined ; stigmas small and simple. Specific characters : — 

 Leaves broad-linear, keeled ; petals sharp, flat, with united 

 nerves. This fragile beauty, observes Philips, is made the 

 emblem of Coquetry, because its flower seldom lasts a sec- 

 ond day. The generic name is derived from two Greek 

 words meaning beauty of a day, and hence the French name 

 it Belle d'un jour. Tournefourt called it Lis-Asphodele, 

 because the plant has the root of an Asphodel and the flower 



of a Lily. 



This species is a native of Hungary, Silesia, and the north- 

 ern parts of China. Both the Yellow and the Copper-Colored 

 Day Lilies are old inhabitants of the English gardens, since 

 Gerards says, in 1596, these lilies grew in his garden, and 

 also in the garden of herbarists and the lovers of fine and rare 

 plants. This excellent old writer distinguishes these Lilies 

 by the title of L ilium non Bulbosum ; the root being partly 

 fibrous and partly tuberous, and not bulbous, like other Lilies. 

 Parkinson writes on this flower under the name of Liliaspho- 



