LILY, Lilium, the typical genus of the family Liliaceae, em bracing nearly 6o species, all confined to the northern hemi sphere, and widely distributed throughout the north temperate zone. The earliest in cultivation were described in 1597 by Gerard (Herball, p. 146), who figures eight kinds of true lilies, which include L. album (L. candidum) and a variety, bizantinum, two umbellate forms of the type L. bulbiferum, named L. aureum and L. cruentum latifolium, and three with pendulous flowers, ap parently forms of the martagon lily. Parkinson, in his Paradisus (1629), described five varieties of martagon, six of umbellate kinds—two white ones, and L. pomponium, L. chalcedonicum, L. carniolicum and L. pyrenaicum—together with one American, L. canadense, which had been introduced in 1629. For the ancient and mediaeval history of the lily, see M. de Cannart d'Hamale's Monographie historique et litteraire des lis (Malines, 1870). Later authorities for description and classification of the genus are J. G. Baker ("Revision of the Genera and Species of Tulipeae," Journ. of Linn. Soc. xiv. p. 211, 1874), and J. H. Elwes (Monograph of the Genus Lilium, 188o). Much information on the cultivation of lilies and the diseases to which they are subject, will be found in the report of the Conference on Lilies, in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, 1901, and in L. H. Bailey, The Standard Cyclopaedia of Horticulture, 1914-27.
The structure of the flower represents the simple type of mono cotyledons, consisting of two whorls of petals, of three free parts each, six free stamens, and a consolidated pistil of three carpels, ripening into a three-valved capsule containing many winged seeds. In form, the flower assumes three types : trumpet shaped, with a more or less elongated tube, e.g., L. longiflorum and L. candidum; an open form with spreading perianth leaves, e.g., L. auratum; or assuming a pendulous habit, with the tips strongly reflexed, e.g., the martagon type. All have scaly bulbs, which in three west American species, as L. Humboldti, are remarkable for being somewhat intermediate between a bulb and a creeping rhizome. L. bulbiferum and its allies produce aerial reproductive bulbils in the axils of the leaves. The bulbs of several species are eaten, such as of L. avenaceum in Kamchatka, of L. Martagon by the Cossacks, and of L. tigrinum, the "tiger lily," in China and Japan. Medicinal uses were ascribed to the species, but none appear to have any marked properties in this respect.
The white lily, L. candidum, was one of the commonest garden flowers of antiquity, appearing in the poets from Homer down wards side by side with the rose and the violet. According to Hehn, roses and lilies entered Greece from the east by way of Phrygia, Thrace and Macedonia (Kulturpflanzen and Hausthiere, 3rd ed., p. 217). Mythologically the white lily, Rosa Junonis, was fabled to have sprung from the milk of Hera. As the plant of purity it was contrasted with the rose of Aphrodite. The word Kpivov, on the other hand, included red and purple lilies, Plin. H.N. xxi. 5 (I1, 12), the red lily being best known in Syria and Judaea (Phaselis). This perhaps is the "red lily of Constanti nople" of Gerard, L. chalcedonicum. The lily of the Old Testa
ment (shoshan) may be conjectured to be a red lily from the simile in Cant. v. 13, unless the allusion is to the fragrance rather than the colour of the lips, in which case the white lily must be thought of. The "lilies of the field," Matt. vi. 28, are Kpiva, and the comparison of their beauty with royal robes suggests their identification with the red Syrian lily of Pliny. Lilies are not a conspicuous feature in the flora of Palestine, and the red anemone (Anemone coronaria), which dots all of the hill-sides of Galilee in the spring, is more likely to have suggested the figure.
The noble L. auratum, with its large white flowers, having a yellow band and nurr. _rous red or purple spots, is a magnificent plant when grown to perfection; and so are the varieties called rubro-vittatum and cruentum, which have the central band crim son instead of yellow; and the broad-petalled platyphyllum, and its almost pure white sub-variety called virginale. Of L. speciosum (well known to most gardeners as lancifolium), the true typical form and the red-spotted and white varieties are grand plants for late summer blooming in the conservatory. The tiger lily, L. tigrinum, and its varieties Fortunei, splendidum and flore-pleno, are amongst the best species for the flower garden ; L. Thunber gianum and its many varieties being also good border flowers. The pretty L. Leichtlinii and L. colchicum (or Szovitzianum) with drooping yellow flowers and the scarlet drooping-flowered L. tenuifolium make up, with those already mentioned, a series of the finest hardy flowers of the summer garden. The Indian L. giganteum is perfectly distinct in character, having broad heart shaped leaves, and a noble stem io to 24 ft. high, bearing a dozen or more large deflexed, funnel-shaped, white, purple-stained flow ers; L. cordifolium (China and Japan) is similar in character, but dwarfier in habit.
The word "lily" is loosely used in connection with many plants which are not really members of the genus Lilium, but belong to genera which are quite distinct botanically. Thus, the Lent lily is Narcissus Pseudonarcissus ; the African lily is Agapanthus urn bellatus; the Belladonna lily is Amaryllis Belladonna (q.v.) ; the Jacobaea lily is Sprekelia formosissima; the Mariposa lily is Calochortus; the lily of the Incas is Alstroemeria pelegrina; St. Bernard's lily is Anthericum Liliago; St. Bruno's lily is Anther icum (or Paradisia) Liliastrum; the water lily of Great Britain is Nymphaea alba; the giant water lily of the Amazon is Victoria regia (q.v.) ; the arum lily is Zantedeschia aethiopica; and there are many others.
No true lily is found native in Great Britain. In North America about 20 native species occur. In the eastern half of the continent the best-known are the wood lily (L. philadelphicum), the meadow lily (L. canadense), the American Turk's-cap lily (L. superbum) and Gray's lily (L. Grayi). Noteworthy among the io native lilies found in the Pacific States are the Washington lily (L. washingtonianum), the Columbia lily (L. columbianum) and the Humboldt lily (L. Humboldti).