LILY, a genus of plants of the natural order liliacea, containing a number of species much prized for the size and beauty of their flowers. The perianth is bell-shaped, and its segments are often bent back at the extremity. The root is a scaly bulb, the stern herbaceous and simple, often several feet high, bearing the flowers near its summit.— The WurrE LILY (L, candidum), a native of the Levant, has been long cultivated in gardens, and unich sung by poets. It has large, erect, pure white flowers, as much prized for their fragrance as for their beauty.—The orange lily (L, bulbiferum), a native of the s. of Europe, with large, erect, orange-colored flowers, is a well-known and very showy ornament of the flower-garden.—The martagon or Turk's cup lily (L. martagon), a -native of the s. of Europe, and allied species with verticillate leaves and drooping flowers, are also common in gardens. The tiger lily (L. tigrinum) is a native of China, remarkable for the axillary buds on the stem; and some very fine species are natives of North America, as L. superbum, which grows in marshes in the United States, has a
stem 6 to 8 ft. high, and reflexed orange flowers, spotted with black; L. Canadense, etc. Several very fine species have been introduced from Japan, as L. Japonieum, L. spe eiosum, and lancifolium,—The bulbs of L. pomponium, L. raartagon, and L. Kamt sehaeense, are roasted and eaten in Siberia. That of L. eandidum loses its acridity by dry ing, roasting. or boiling; when cooked, it is viscid, pulpy, and sugary, and is eaten in some parts of the east.—Lilies are -renerally propagated by offset bulbs. A single scale of the bull»vill, however, suffice t6o produce a new plant, or even part of a scale, of -which skillful gardeners avail themselves.—The name lily is often popularly extended to 'flowers of other genera of the same order, and even of allied orders.