THE CROWN-IMPERIAL. 
43 
THE CROWN-IMPERIAL. 
FRITILLARIA IMPERIALIS. 
“ Pride of gardens, charming flowers 
Fleeting are your little hours ; 
Often does a summer’s day 
Give ye life and take away : 
Mornings two or three at most 
Are the brilliant life ye boast.” 
The crown-imperial, as its name imports, wears a 
majestic appearance, and “ is greatly esteemed,” says 
Gerard, “ for the beautifying of our gardens and the 
bosoms of the beautiful.” But however the florists of 
the present day may be prepared to admit the former 
assertion, they certainly must reject the latter; for the 
size of its blossoms, and the strong disagreeable odour 
they emit, would ill suit the more refined taste of a 
modern belle. It is a native of Persia, the land of 
flowers, and its stately beauty does honour to its birth¬ 
place ; yet it is so completely acclimatised here, that it 
is one of our earliest tall spring flowers, and forms a 
splendid decoration to the then comparatively vacant 
border. 
