Localities. — In copses, and on banks among bushes; a doubtful native. — 
Essex ; In tolerable plenty near the village of Sampford, on the road from 
Great Bardfield to Walden, where it was pointed out to Mr. Edward Double- 
day, in May, 1841, by Mr. R. M. Smith, of Great Bardfield, who had known 
of it for above twenty years. The spot is a high bank, sprinkled with low 
bushes, on the side of a lane leading from the village eastward to some un- 
explored part of the county: The Phytologist, v. i. p.62. — Kent; At Ash, 
near Wrotham, where it grows plentifully in a very wild situation on an estate 
belonging to Mr. Gladdish : Mr. N. B. Ward, in The Phytologist, v. i. p. 
76. — Surrey ; “ Communicated” to English Botany, “ by the Rev. William 
A. Bromfield, and Mr. Borrer, from a copse on the grounds of Mr. Reid at 
Woodmanstone, about five miles from Epsom, well known to the inhabitants of 
the village under the name of Turk’s-cap Shaw. It grows among the thick 
underwood in great abundance, and is remembered by the older people of the 
neighbourhood to have flourished truly wild in that locality for more than half a 
century. Found likewise under similar circumstances in Marden Park near 
Godstone, and in a wide hedge-row between Headley and Juniper Hall, under 
Box Hill English Botany, Supp. folio 2799. See also Loud. Mag. Nat. 
Hist. v. iii. p. 153. and vol. viii. p. 117. In a little coppice to the right of the 
lane leading from Mickleham to Headley ; the coppice was (in 1826) over- 
shadowed by oak trees of considerable size, and the underwood had been cut 
during the previous year, so that the tall racemes of the Lily stood up nobly and 
conspicuously above the brushwood, and it would have been difficult for any 
passing observer not to have noticed them : Mr. E. Newman, in The Phytol. 
p. 26. In the greatest profusion (in 1840) in the station last mentioned. In 
some parts of the coppice the plants were so crowded, that the flowers produced 
a perfect blaze of the richest colour among the young trees: ibid. — Yorkshire; 
Said to grow in a wood near Kirby Fleetham, to all appearance wild : see Loud. 
Mag. Nat. Hist. v. iii. p. 438. 
Perennial. — Flowers in July. 
Bulb (fig. 8.) composed of spear-shaped, loose, yellow scales, 
with thick, long, whitish fibres at the base. Stem about 3 feet high, 
upright, straight, cylindrical, shining, slightly pubescent, pale green 
at bottom, purplish upwards, with scattered black spots. Leaves 
egg-spear-shaped, quite entire, the upper ones almost strap-shaped ; 
in very regular, distant whorls. Flowers terminating the stem in a 
loose, wide-set panicle ; their peduncles purple, spotted with black, 
with two spear-shaped bracteas at their base. Corolla pale purple, 
with dark spots ; petals elegantly recurved, the three outer slightly 
hairy, with a raised line along the middle. Filaments and Style 
pale. Anthers bay, with orange-coloured pollen. 
This very ornamental plant is a native of Germany, France, 
Siberia, Spain, and Portugal, It appears to have been cultivated 
in our gardens for nearly three centuries, for Gerarde says, in 
1597, that he had had it many years growing in his garden. Its 
claim to be considered a native of England rests upon the autho- 
rities recorded above. A white-flowered variety is sometimes met 
with in gardens ; and also a larger variety with a pubescent stem, 
figured in the Bot. Mag. t. 893. “ The bulbs of this and some 
other species of Lily are cultivated in some parts of the Continent 
as the potatoe is with us, and furnish a nutritious and agreeable 
article of vegetable diet.” Engl. Bot. 
