PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 153 
half-a-dozen species in cultivation. There are now forty-six 
recognized species, besides varieties in great number. 
The Lily has a very wide geographical range, spreading 
from Central Europe to the Philippines, and species are found 
in all quarters of the globe, though the chief homes of the 
family seem to be in California and Japan. Yet we have no wild 
Lily in England. Both the Martagon and the Pyrenean Lily 
have been found, but there is no doubt they are garden escapes. 
As a garden plant it may safely be said that no garden can 
make any pretence to the name that cannot show a good 
display of Lilies, many or few. Yet the Lily is a most 
capricious plant; while in one garden almost any sort will 
grow luxuriantly, in a neighbouring garden it is found dif¬ 
ficult to grow any in a satisfactory manner. Within the last 
few years their culture has been much studied, and by the 
practical knowledge of such great growers of the family as 
G. F. Wilson, H. J. Elwes, and other kindred liliophilists, 
we shall probably in a few years have many difficulties cleared 
up both in the botanical history and the cultivation of this 
lovely tribe. 
But we cannot dismiss the Lily without a few words of 
notice of its sacred character. It is the flower specially 
dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and which is so familiar to us 
in the old paintings of the Annunciation. But it has, of course, 
a still higher character as a sacred plant from the high honour 
placed on it by our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. After 
all that has been written on u the Lilies of the field,” critics 
have not yet decided whether any, and, if so, what particular 
plant was meant. Each Eastern traveller seems to have 
selected the flower that he most admired in Palestine, and 
then to pronounce that that must be the Lily referred to. 
Thus, at various times it has been decided to be the Rose, the 
Crown Imperial, the White Lily, the Chalcedonian Lily, the 
Oleander, the Wild Artichoke, the Sternbergia, the Tulip, and 
many others, but the most generally received opinion now is, 
that if a true Lily at all, the evidence runs most strongly in 
favour of the L. Chalcedonicum ; but that Dean Stanley’s view 
