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ORDER MCXCGTXIA 
You have already been made acquainted 
with the lily, as it was one of the first flowers 
you were taught to analyze. Pliny says the 
“ lily is the next in nobility to the rose.”* 
Linnaeus called the liliaceous flowers u Nobles 
of the vegetable kingdom ;” he also called the 
palm-trees “ Piinces of India,” and the 
grasses Plebeians. 
But in our republican country, where aris¬ 
tocratic distinctions among men are discard¬ 
ed, we will not attempt to introduce orders of nobility among the 
plants. In the lily, which has 6' stamens, there are 6 pet^s; 3 of 
these are exterior, 3 interior ; the capsule is 3-sided, with 3 cells, and 
3 valves;• the seeds are arranged in 6 rows. This proportion of 
numbers seems to forbid thb idea that this plant was produced with¬ 
out the agency of a designing mind. We are not always, however, 
to expect the same symmetry in plants, as has been here remarked. 
It is in the natural, as in the moral world, that, although we see 
around us such proofs of order and system, as manifest the superin¬ 
tending care of one Almighty Being, yet we meet with irregulari¬ 
ties which we cannot comprehend ; but, although we may admire the 
order , we are not to say that even what seems disorder , is formed 
without a plan. 
“ Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce 
His works unwise, of which the smallest part 
Exceeds the narrow visions of his mind ?’* 
The tulip has no style, but its three-parted stigma is attached to a 
three-cornered germ. The corolla of the tulip is more expanded at 
the base than that of the lily. The stem of the tulip is never more 
than one-flowered, while that of the lily usually has a number of 
flowers. In no plant is the variation made by culture, greater than 
in the tulip; it is said, that of one single species, (Tulipa gesneriana ,) 
eleven hundred varieties are cultivated in Holland. About the mid¬ 
dle of the seventeenth century, the rage for tulips was so great that 
some were sold for four thousand dollars, and one variety, called the 
Viceroi, for ten thousand dollars; but this extraordinary traffic was 
checked by a law, that no tulip or other flower should be sold for a 
sum exceeding one hundred and seventy-five dollars. The amateurs 
of this flower may truly be said to have had the tulip-mania, to have 
rendered such a law nehessary. The Crown-imperialf is a majestic 
flower, and presents, in the regularity of its parts, the curious ap¬ 
pearance of its nectaries, and the liquid secretion which takes place 
in them, facts of great interest both in the departments of botanical 
classification and physiology. But we find in the fetid odour of this 
splendid flower, a circumstance which leads us to prefer, as an or¬ 
nament for our parlours, or as a gift to a friend, the humble mignio- 
nette, or the lowly violet. 
* “ Lilium nobilitate proximum est .” A French poet, in the following lines, gives 
the lily a rank above the rose. 
“ Noble fils du soleil, le lysmajesteux. 
Vers l’astre paternal dont il brave les feux 
Eleve avec orgueil sa tele souveraine; 
II est roi des fleurs, la rose est la reine .” 
t This plant is represented at Plate vii. Fig. 4, of the Appendix ; the Yucca aloifo- 
Zia, which belongs to the same natural family, is represented at Plate ii. Fig. 1. The 
Narcissus is represented at Plate vii. Fig. 7. The Agave, of the Narcissi family, is 
represented at Plate vii. Fig. 2. The Pine-apple, belonging to this class and order, is 
represented at Plate v. Fig. 3. 
What is said of the lily 1 —Tulip—Tulip mania—Crown-imperial. 
