LILY. 



173 



as many distinctive names, when none other could possi- 

 bly see the points of difference. The Lily is one of the 

 few plants that we think has never been improved by 

 hybridization, or cross-fertilization. Efforts without 

 number have been made in this direction, many of 

 which we have watched with the greatest interest and 

 with the closest attention, yet we cannot note a single 

 instance where there has been the slightest improvement 

 in the flower, in any respect. On the contrary, we have 

 usually noticed a decrease in the vigor of the plant, and 

 the quality of the flower. It seems to us that every step 

 in this direction has been a step backward ; that nature 

 has exhausted her resources in the perfection of the 

 species, and regards as an interference all efforts of man 

 to improve her work. There are now under cultivation 

 many seedlings from the species that, in some points of 

 marking, are to be preferred to the parent ; this we con- 

 sider the result of their natural tendency to variation, 

 rather than the result of any systematic effort for im- 

 provement. High cultivation, which includes careful 

 protection against cold, heat, drouth and water, all of 

 which points will be duly considered, is the great secret 

 of improvement ; a proper amount of attention in this 

 direction will increase the vigor of the plants, the size, 

 number and general character of the flowers. 



It does not seem necessary to improve, or, rather, 

 to attempt an improvement on that which is already 

 perfect, as the Lily is, wherever found in its native 

 habitat. Nature has endowed the Lily with every ele- 

 ment of grace and beauty, not only in outline, but in 

 color, or the happy blending of colors, in forms most 

 varied and beautiful, in fragrance delightful ; in short, 

 in all the characters essential to real beauty. Certainly, 

 the ease with which many varieties produced their 

 rapid increase, has placed them in the list of common 

 plants, as though a plant must be difficult to manage, or 



