BROWNING’S ^^THREE-LEAVED BELL!' 85 
probably Hemerocallis fulva, well known as the Day Lily, and so 
prettily described by John Parkinson in Paradisus (1629) that 
I cannot do better than transcribe his description, from which 
I think readers will have no difficulty in recognising the plant 
as a common garden flower: — 
“ The red Day Lilly hath diuers broad and long fresh greene 
leaves, folded at the first as it were double, which after open, and 
remaine a little hollow in the middle ; among which riseth up a 
naked stalke three foot high, bearing at the toppe many flowers, 
one not much distant from another, and flowring one after 
another, not hauing lightly aboue one flower blown open in a day, 
and that but for a day, not lasting longer, but closing at night, 
and not opening againe ; whereupon it had his English name, 
The Lilly for a day ; these flowers are almost as large as the 
flowers of the white Lilly, and made after the same fashion, but 
■of a faire gold red, or orange tawny colour.” 
That this is the species intended, and not the almost equally 
•common H.flava with golden 3^ellow flowers, is, I think, clear. 
Although both have really six leaves to the flower, the three 
inner ones of H. fulva are very much larger than the three outer, 
so that the description “ three-leaved bell ” is not inapt. In 
//. the divisions are more equal in size, and the blossoms 
do not fade so rapidly. The poet's description, however, is not 
accurate as to the dead flowers being “cleared away” by the 
“ evening gales,” for, so far as I remember, they wither on the 
stem ; nor does the Hemerocallis, so far as I can ascertain, bear 
any name at all resembling Eglamor — the “ him ” of the lines 
quoted. 
Dr. Berdoe accepts apparently without hesitation the expla- 
nation given in the Browning Society's Papers of the 
One plant. 
Woods have in May, that starts up green 
Save a sole streak which, so to speak. 
Is spring’s blood, spilt the leaves between . — Alay ami Death. 
According to this authority, the common Persicaria {Polygonum 
Persicaria) is meant. Now this plant does not grow in woods, 
and would hardly be visible in ^lay, as was pointed out when 
the passage was under discussion in Nature Notes two years 
ago. Both the Arum and Purple Orchis sometimes grow in 
woods, though they are not characteristic woodland plants, and 
the leaves of both are often spotted ; but what is the “ sole 
streak”? To me this plant is far more difficult to identify 
than the “three-leaved bell,” and I venture to hope that Dr. 
Berdoe may include it in any future list of “ difficult problems,” 
inasmuch as the above explanation cannot be considered 
satisfactory. 
James Britten. 
