There are but few lilies left for us to describe, and these are of very little importance to the flower-grower.
Lilium Auratum.
Lilium Concolor and Lilium Davidii are usually considered under the Isolirion group, but they present such numerous deviations from that group of lilies that we have decided to make a group of them alone.
Lilium Concolor is a pretty, little, very variable lily. It is more suitable for a button-hole decoration than for anything else, but it has a pleasing effect when grown in great masses. This species has a very small bulb with few, acute, oblong scales. The plant grows to about a foot high, and bears from one to three flowers about an inch and a half across, and of a deep crimson colour spotted with black. The flowers open very wide, and the filaments are shorter than in any other lily. Of the great number of varieties of this lily we will describe two. The first, named Buschianum, or Sinicum, grows taller, has larger leaves, and larger and more numerous blossoms, which are of a fine crimson.
The second variety, Coridion, is by far the handsomest of the group, bearing large flowers of a bright yellow spotted with brown. Concolor is a native of Western Asia. Its culture is very simple, and it is perfectly hardy.
Of Lilium Davidii, we only know that it was discovered by David in Thibet; that it grows about two feet high, and bears bright yellow flowers spotted with brown. We also know that there is a plate of this species in Elwes’s Monograph. The plant is practically unknown to everybody.
The last group of lilies, Notholirion, contains two or, as we have it, three species which are not very well known, and it is a little doubtful whether they are lilies at all. Formerly they were considered to be fritillaries, and certainly they bear more superficial resemblance to those plants than they do to the lilies.
Most authors include Lilium Oxypetalum among the Archelirions, because its flowers are widely expanded. But as in every other particular it differs completely from that group of lilies, we have separated it from L. Auratum and L. Speciosum, and placed it among the Notholirions, to which it bears considerable resemblance.
This little-known lily was formerly called Fritillaria oxypetala, and bears more resemblance to the fritillaries than it does to the lilies. The bulb is oblong, with but few lance-shaped scales. The stem grows to the height of about fifteen inches, and bears about twenty or thirty leaves, resembling those of our native snake’s-head fritillary in every particular. One or two blossoms are borne on each stem. They are pale lilac, star-like blossoms, with numerous little hairs on the bases of the segments. The petals are acutely pointed. The anthers are scarlet.