This lily is a very pretty flower, not gorgeous nor pretentious as are so many of the genus, but quiet and homely. It grows about four feet high; the stem is very slender, and the leaves are whorled. In the middle of summer it bears from three to fifteen blossoms like small stars. They are bright orange in colour, thickly spotted with deep purple, and about an inch and a half across. Their chief beauty lies in the way they hang, for they are very gracefully swung. The segments are not reflexed, and the plant more nearly resembles the Eulirions than it does the typical Martagons.
The lily is subject to great variety, especially in the colour of the blossoms, which vary from lemon yellow to brick red. There is a great number of named varieties, but they are all more or less inconstant. By some authorities nearly all the other swamp lilies are considered to be merely variations from Lilium Canadense.
Although, as we have said, the Canada lily has long been cultivated in England, it does not always take kindly to our soil, and very often it speedily degenerates, and in a few years disappears. But if the soil is really to its liking, it will often flourish in England. Like so many of its congeners, it is very impatient of removal, and when once established it should be left alone.
A fitting companion to the last, but of greater vigour and considerably superior dimensions is the Lilium Superbum of the United States of America.
This species is often confused with the last, but it can readily be distinguished by the form of its bulb and rhizome; its greater vigour and more robust growth; the shape of the flower buds, which is triangular in L. Canadense, and rounded in L. Superbum; and by the blossoms themselves, which are far larger, very revolute and marked with a green star formed by the green ribs of the segments. In this respect L. Superbum resembles L. Speciosum. It also produces more blossoms than does L. Canadense, and flowers later in the season.
The root of this lily is typical of those species which bear annual bulbs and perennial rhizomes. The bulb is small, about as large as a walnut, composed of thick, short, fleshy scales, very closely packed together, but easily detached by a rough hand. It closely resembles a young fir-cone, but is more spherical. The rhizome or sucker is about as thick as a man’s little finger, and from one to four inches long. It is hard, but brittle, and regularly dotted with small scales.
As far as we have been able to follow the life history of the underground portions of rhizome rooted lilies, we have come to the conclusion that in all the bulbs are annual and are produced in the early autumn when the flower spike is dying. It is usually stated that in some species, i.e., L. Canadense, the bulbs are annual; but in other species, such as L. Superbum, the bulbs are perennial. Perhaps this is usually the case, but it certainly is not so with our lilies. We do not say that the old bulb is entirely destroyed when once it has flowered; a little nucleus is left which sometimes develops afresh into a new bulb. But the tendency of all the American lilies is to run along under the ground, shifting their position every year.
The flowers of L. Superbum are numerous. They much resemble those of L. Canadense, but are larger, more recurved, and less graceful. They also have the curious green star above referred to. This alone is quite sufficient to distinguish the species from the other swamp lilies.
It is a fine lily, and of course a fine plant, but it is not superb, anymore than L. Elegans is elegant.
The culture is the same as that of L. Canadense. It is, however, a much more satisfactory species to grow.