LILIES
Genus (Lilium)
All the members of this genus are among our most beautiful flowers. In our range it includes eight species, of which seven are natives. The two species of Red Lily can readily be recognized because their perianth, or flower funnel, always opens upward.
Wood Lily; Wild Orange-red Lily (Lilium philadelphicum) has a leafy stem 1 to 3 feet high, at its summit bearing one to four erect (not pendulous) flowers; the divisions of the perianth are deep orange-red, lightening in color at the stem-like bases and profusely spotted with dark brown; the outside of the perianth is dull whitish green. The leaves are lanceolate, sharply pointed at each end and whorled about the stem in groups of from three to seven. Its name is rather misleading for, while it is sometimes found in woods, it will be found blooming most profusely in sandy or brush-covered land. Blooms in July and August in sandy soil from N. E. to Mich. and southward.
Turk’s-cap Lily (Lilium superbum) is a most beautiful plant, prolific in bloom almost beyond belief, sometimes containing from thirty to forty brilliant orange flowers. The bright sepals are always reflexed, sometimes so much so that they remind one of a coiled spring. One has but to touch the large pendent anthers to get a practical demonstration of how the pollen is attached to the body of a bee and carried to another flower, there to be deposited on the sticky stigma of the mature style. Naturally a species so prolific of flower and so capable of being cross-fertilized by foreign agency is in little danger of having its numbers lessened.
The flowers, nodding at the top of a stem ranging from 2 to 7 feet in height, have a six-parted perianth, orange-red, thickly spotted with purplish brown. The lanceolate leaves are crowded along the upper stem and whorled about its lower portion. Blooms abundantly in rich soil, during July and August, from N. B. to Minn. and southward.
Field, Wild, Meadow, Yellow or Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) is one of the most abundant of the genus. Imagine a rich meadow, surrounded by deep green woods and covered with thousands of these lilies, their heads hanging and nodding invitingly and seeming fairly to tinkle in the bright sunlight. On the whole, this flower may be regarded as more graceful in form than is the [Turk’s-cap], but it cannot compare with the latter flower for beauty of coloring. The regular whorled leaves and graceful bending peduncles supporting the hanging “bells” make a conventional design that often appeals to the artistic eye.
The flowers are in terminal clusters of one to twelve blossoms, nodding on long peduncles from the summit of tall leafy stems. The leaves are lanceolate, arranged about the stem at intervals in whorls of three to eight. Flowers during June and July in moist meadows from Quebec to Minn. and southward to Ga. and Mo.