Lily. 



177 



always healthy, and increases rapidly, which it does not 

 do in less favored situations. There are many other 

 plants protected by snow in the same, or in a similar, 

 manner. We notice on the Alps, at an elevation that 

 permits of only four months of spring, summer and 

 autumn, that the Primula auricula grows in the greatest 

 luxuriance and profusion. There the frost never reaches 

 it, as it is constantly and completely protected with 

 snow through eight months of winter. In the valleys 

 below, where there is no snow and but little frost, the 

 same plant will not live through the winter without arti- 

 ficial protection. It is not so much the cold that injures 

 or destroys many of the species, as the disintegration 

 which follows alternate freezing and thawing. We have 

 often had bulbs of the Tigrinum, Umbellatum and Spe- 

 ciosum (Lancifolium) remain on the surface during win- 

 ter, without fatal injury, while those in the ground were 

 completely destroyed. 



The question may be asked, and it is a pertinent 

 one, "Do not our native Lilies have the same elements 

 to contend against as those not indigenous to our soil, 

 and having them, escape uninjured?" Certainly, yes; 

 but nature always protects her own, and in collecting 

 our native species, we see how wisely and beautifully it 

 is done. The L. superbum is rarely found, excepting 

 in woods, or marshy grounds ; the low-growing trees or 

 shrubs form a complete net-work of roots above and 

 beneath the bulbs, affording the most ample protection 

 against the action of the frost, should it penetrate the 

 heavy mulching of leaves that nature has provided for 

 their protection. The L. canadense, or common Lily 

 of northern meadows, forms its bulbs very deep, usually 

 beyond the reach of frost, and has for a covering a heavy 

 turf, than which there can be no better protection. 

 This Lily, in our cultivated fields or nursery grounds, is 

 by no means hardy. 

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