Lilybaeum

“ Much about the same time letters were brought from Sicily and Sardinia. That of Titus Otacilius the propraetor was first read in the senate. It stated that Lucius Furius the praetor had arrived at Lilybaeum from Africa with his fleet. That he himself, having been severely wounded, was in imminent danger of his life; that neither pay nor corn was punctually furnished to the soldiers or the marines ”

“ This is one of the most beautiful species of the genus Lilium. It is rare, perhaps from the difficulty that attends its cultivation, the bulbs being extremely liable to be lost in the winter from severe frosts or damp; it is a native of China, and was introduced into this country in the year 1806. A sheltered situation, and light rich soil, mixed with bog, are necessary for it, and it is increased by off-sets, which are produced in tolerable abundance. All the species of Lilium are desirable for a flower garden. ”

“ Lilium Philadelphicum is an American species, and has a rhizomotose bulb. The stem produces a single blossom, dirty orange colour spotted with black and yellow. It requires a wet, very peaty soil.
Another American species is Lilium Catesbaei, a very curious and interesting plant. The bulb is unlike that of any other lily except L. Avenaceum. It somewhat resembles a fir-cone. This plant grows to the height of about a foot. It produces a single blossom, about five inches across. ”

“ The bulbs rapidly became cheaper, and the lily at once rose to a foremost position amongst garden plants.
The Lilium Auratum, or golden-rayed lily, is perhaps the most popular member of the genus. Its flowers are immense, indeed, it has the largest flowers of all the lilies. Of fine colour, producing many flowers on each stem, of great hardiness and of moderate ease to cultivate, it is not surprising that this lily should have attained its high popularity.
The Lilium Auratum is the most variable of all the lilies. There are eight named varieties. ”

“ Some of the hardy plants cultivated in gardens as Anthericums are now included by botanists in other genera, but they will be more conveniently dealt with together under their popular names in gardens. Several of these are very ornamental plants, with handsome spikes of beautiful flowers. They grow well in common soil, not too dry, and are best planted in autumn or spring, at which times they may be divided when desired. Liliago, St Bernard's Lily, grows about one and a half foot high, and has pretty white flowers from May. There is a larger form, called major. ”

“ It is a pretty little flower, and makes a good pot-plant.
Lilium Callosum, the callous-bracted lily, is something like a magnified version of the last. The leaves are broader and less numerous than in L. Tenuifolium. The flowers about an inch and a quarter across, of a vivid scarlet or orange. The bracts are thick and horny, a characteristic which has given the plant its name.
The callous lily likes a rich peaty soil, but it is very accommodating and will grow in most good soils. It is perfectly hardy, and is of little difficulty to cultivate. ”

“ From this many people imagine that if a lily shoot is not thick and solid, it is not going to produce a flower. This opinion is quite wrong. Some lilies, especially L. Speciosum, never start with a thick shoot, but show above ground as a thin lanky growth.
L. Auratum begins as a thin shoot, but it rapidly gains in size and strength if circumstances are favourable.
As in every other particular, L. Auratum is exceedingly variable in the height to which the stem grows. We have had in our garden bulbs from the same source, planted at the same time, in the same soil and position. ”

“ They are inferior to the ordinary varieties.
But little need be said of the cultivation of L. Speciosum. Where L. Auratum will grow, L. Speciosum will grow; and it will grow in most places where L. Auratum will not grow. It likes a peaty soil with plenty of sand. Water must be given freely during growth.
L. Speciosum makes an excellent pot plant, and is grown by many people in their conservatories. In fact, it shares the honour with Lilium Harrisii of being the only lily commonly grown under glass. As a cut flower it is very useful. ”

“ In this plant the centres of the leaves are an opaque pale green, and the margins are pure white. The buds show a similar colouration. Unlike most plants with variegated foliage, this lily has very fine blossoms of a dead white colour, but with curious transparent edges. Each bulb usually produces two flowers.
We cannot too strongly emphasise the extreme beauty of this species. Whether as cut flowers, in pots or in the garden, it is one of the loveliest of natural objects.
All lilies make good cut flowers and last well in water, but the L. Longiflorum is par excellence the lily for cutting. ”

“ A lovely little lily is Lilium Krameri. The delicate pink of its blossoms, its slender growth, its early flowering, and its fragrance render it worthy of a place in every garden.
Like most of the lilies we have described, L. Krameri hails from Japan. In most particulars it resembles a little L. Auratum, but its flowers are totally different from any other species. They are about four inches across, of a waxy white to deep blush pink colour. The anthers are brown.
This lily flowers in June. It is not easy to do well with. It is rather tender and very susceptible to early frosts. ”

“ What, then, should we imagine Lilium Elegans, the elegant lily to be like? And what is the reality? A low-growing clumsy stalk bearing two or three top-heavy enormous blossoms sticking bolt upright, chiefly of crude colours! As inelegant a plant as it is possible to conceive, having about as much right to the title of elegans as has the hippopotamus! Where did this lily get its name from? It has another title, Lilium Thunbergianum, or Thunberg’s lily. ”

“ The life history of the lily is one of perpetual growth. The lily never lies dormant. [1] In the severest frost, or in periods of great drought, this plant is ever developing. As soon as the flower-stem has died down, the bulb begins to form fresh roots and continues to do so until the time comes round again for it to send up its flower spikes. Lilium Candidum throws up a winter crop of leaves during the autumn, but the other lilies perform all their winter labours below ground. ”

“ C. L. Allen (an expert in lily cultivation) "to improve, or rather, to attempt an improvement on that which is already perfect, as the lily is, wherever found in its natural habitat. It seems to us that nature has exhausted her resources in the perfection of the species, and regards as an interference all efforts of man to improve her work."
"L. Candidum," says the same authority, "is older than history, as the first notice made of plants speaks of it as a 'well-known plant.' It is the loveliest, as well as the oldest, and if we were to have but one lily Candidum would be the one." ”

“ The stem grows to about three or four feet high, and bears at its summit from two to six flowers somewhat like those of L. Giganteum, but smaller, poorer, and marked on the inside with brown rather than claret-colour. The flowers open wider than do those of L. Giganteum, and are incomparably less beautiful. This lily is a native of Japan and China.
It is decidedly a scarce lily, and is exceedingly difficult to flower. We have not succeeded in flowering it ourselves, but a solitary bulb that we possess sent up last summer a fair crop of its curious leaves. ”

“ All the varieties of L. Auratum make excellent pot-plants.
The lily which bears the title of Speciosum, or showy, was formerly the most admired member of the genus. Even at the present day this lily is looked upon by many as being the finest. Personally we cannot concur with this opinion. There is a certain falseness about its blossoms and a hardness in their shape which to our minds places it far below L. Auratum for beauty. ”

“ The Japanese protect their great auratum Lily bulbs from the air by encasing them in a ball of clay before starting them on their long journey to the far West. Candidum Lilies make a fall growth of leaves, and must be planted early; no other Lily is as hardy and satisfactory with us as this. They should be planted four inches deep and a foot apart each way, that they may have room to increase, and left undisturbed for years. The soil may be made very rich with manure, but none of it should touch the Lily bulbs. ”

“ They are of a brilliant sealing-wax red, usually unspotted, quite scentless, and about two inches across. The segments are very revolute, and altogether this lily resembles a much glorified edition of Lilium Pomponium. There is a variety with yellowish-orange flowers. This plant blossoms at the beginning of August.
To cultivate this lily successfully is by no means an easy matter. It delights in a rich heavy loam of great depth and with a chalk basis. It dislikes peat and manures. If it can have the soil it likes, it does best when exposed to the sun all day long. ”

“ As a fair white lily grows up out of the bed of meadow muck, and without note or comment rejects all in the soil that is alien from her being, and goes on fashioning her own silver cup side by side with weeds that are drawing coarser nutriment from the soil, so we often see a refined and gentle nature, by some singular internal force, unfolding itself by its own laws, and confirming itself in its own beliefs, as wholly different from all that surround it as is the lily from the ragweed. ”

“ Giganteum, a gigantic Himalayan Lily, with stems from 6 to 10, and sometimes 14 feet high, furnished with large heart-shaped oval leaves. The flower stem is 1 to 2 feet long and has drooping funnel-shaped blossoms of a greenish-white, suffused with violet-purple in the throat. Unlike other Liliums, the large conical bulbs of this species are not buried deeply in the soil. They are sunk in the soil about one-third of their depth, and are usually planted in April or May. ”

“ If you know the Crioceris, you may name as a lily the plant which she devastates. It will not perhaps be the common or white lily, but some other representative of the same family—Turk's cap lily, orange lily, scarlet Martagon, lancifoliate lily, tiger-spotted lily, golden lily—hailing from the Alps or the Pyrenees, or brought from China or Japan. Relying on the Crioceris, who is an expert judge of exotic as well as of native Liliaceae, you may name as a lily the plant with which you are unacquainted and trust the word of this singular botanical master. ”

“ This is a perfectly lovely plant. As we are writing there is a specimen of this lily on the table before us. It is in a pot and is the result of a single bulb. There are eight blossoms, not one of which is aught but perfect. The blossoms are very long and possess the scent of lilac.
Among the other varieties of L. Longiflorum which we have grown there is one which, as far as we are aware, is unnamed. We bought ten bulbs of “Lilium Longiflorum, New Variety,” at an auction for half-a-crown. Most of the bulbs produced fair but ordinary results ”

“ No flower was hailed with greater wonder and admiration by the European settlers in general--Scotch, English, and Irish--than this white water-lily (_Nymphaea odorata_) . It is a magnificent plant, queen of the inland waters, pure white, three or four inches in diameter, the most beautiful, sumptuous, and deliciously fragrant of all our Wisconsin flowers. No lily garden in civilization we had ever seen could compare with our lake garden. ”

“ And the water lily floats on the surface of slow waters, amid rounded shields of leaves, bucklers red beneath, which simulate a green field, perfuming the air. Each instantly the prey of the spoiler, the rose-bug and water insects. How transitory the perfect beauty of the rose and the lily. The highest, intensest color belongs to the land; the purest, perchance, to the water. The lily is perhaps the only flower which all are eager to pluck. ”

“ Probably the variety we call Rubrum is the type of the species.
The bulbs of L. Speciosum are large with loose scales. The flower spike is not often so evident in the bulb as it is with most lilies. The bulbs vary a good deal in colour from white to deep purple; but the colour of the bulb is no criterion as to the colour of the blossoms. In the variety known as Kraetzeri the bulbs are usually yellow.
This lily first sees the light as a thin, lanky shoot. In fact, those who have grown other lilies but not Speciosum would at once pronounce a perfectly healthy shoot of this lily to be “blind.” ”

“ In monocotyledonous flowers, especially those with a coloured perianth, the substitution of segments of the perianth for stamens occurs not unfrequently. M. Seringe has observed this in the stamens of Lilium Martagon, and there is in cultivation a variety of the white lily, Lilium candidum, sometimes called the double white lily, in which the segments of the perianth, in place of being arranged in two rows, are greatly increased in number, and disposed in a spiral manner. ”

“ Besides its seeds, the lily of the valley has another method of perpetuating the species by means of its subterranean creeping root-stock, on which a new bud, or series of buds, appears annually, each bud ultimately developing the orthodox two leaves, from the centre of which rises the flower-stem. As the flowers and foliage of the present year begin to fade, those buds on the underground stem which represent next year's supply of flowers are seen to increase somewhat in size. ”

“ Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky.
"The ordinary White Lily, Lilium candidum," writes Parkinson, "scarce needeth any description, [Pg 162] it is so well known and so frequent in every garden. The stalk is of a blackish green color, having many fair broad and long green leaves. The flower stands upon long green footstalks, of a fair white color, with a long pointell in the middle and white chives tipt with yellow pendants about it. The smell is something heady and strong. It is called Lilium album, the White Lily, by most writers; but by poets, Rosa Junonis, Juno's Rose." ”