Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/479

 LILY LILY OF THE VALLEY 473 Lily Scale Raising them from seed is slow, and is not often resorted to, save to obtain new varie- ties. A few species are increased by planting the bulblets borne upon the stem ; in some the bulbs increase in number either by producing small ones at the base of the old bulb, or some inches distant, at the end of a rhizome. Layering the stem is sometimes prac- tised, small bulbs being pro- duced at the point of attach- ment of the leaf ; this kind of layering takes place naturally when the bulb is planted suffi- ciently deep. (See LAYERING.) Still another method of propa- gation is by means of the bulb scales, which are broken off from their at- tachment to the base of the bulb and placed in a pot or box of soil ; this is done in au- tumn, and the earth containing the scales is kept all winter at a temperature of 50 or 60; by spring each scale will have formed one or more minute bulbs at its base, when the boxes containing them are set out in the open ground; in two or three years the bulbs will be sufficiently large to flower. The African lily, agapanthus umbellatus, from the Cape of Good Hope, is an old-fashioned house plant of the same family. It has long flat leaves and a stem 1 to 2 ft. high, bearing an umbel of large blue flowers ; there is a form with handsomely striped leaves. It is not hardy, but is frequently turned out to bloom in the borders. Day lily is a name applied to plants of two genera of the lily family. One of the oldest inhabitants of the gardens is the tawny day lily, Jiemerocallis fulva ; it has a tuberous root stock, and forms large clumps of long, linear, keeled leaves the flower stems arise above the leaves and bear a few lily-shaped, yellowish copper-colored flowers, which remain open but for a day; in many places it has escaped from gardens and is naturalized along roadsides. H. flava is a more slender plant, with light yellow flowers, and there are several others cultivated. Fun- Ma, a genus separated from hemerocallis, com- prises plants with broad leaves with white or blue flowers, which are also called day lilies ; F. siibcordata, white, and F. ovata, blue, are the most common species. Lily of the Nile is one of the names for JRichardia Africana, also called calla ^Ethiopica. (See CALLA.) Pond lily and water lily are common names for nu- phar and nymphcea. (See WATER LILY.) LILY, William, an English grammarian, born at Odiham, Hampshire, about 1466, died in London in February, 1523. He was educated at Oxford, spent five years at Rhodes study- ing Greek, and in 1509 established a classical school in London, and is said to have been the first Englishman that ever taught Greek in that country. When Dr. Colet founded St. Paul's school in 1510, he appointed Lily its first master, and he held this office for 12 years. He died of the plague. The most im- portant of his works is Bremssima Institutio, sen Ratio Grammatices Cognoscendcs (4to, London, 1513), a book which, under the title of " Lily's Grammar," has probably passed through more editions than any other similar work. Dean Oolet was the author of the Eng- lish rudiments, Erasmus of the greater part of the Latin syntax, and Lily of the rest ; and Cardinal Wolsey wrote the preface to the sec- ond edition. LILYBJCUM. See MARSALA. LILY OF THE VALLEY (convallaria majalis), one of the most popular of the many plants which have the name lily attached to them, but which do not belong to the genus lilium. The generic name is the Latin lilium conval- lium slightly altered, and of which our com- mon name is a translation. Though intro- duced into our gardens from Europe, the plant is found perfectly wild upon the higher Alle- ghanies, from Virginia southward. It belongs to the asparagus suborder of the lily family, which includes the lily-like plants having no bulb, and producing a berry-like fruit. The lily of the valley is a perennial with slender running root stocks, which produce large scaly buds ; each bud sends up in May two oblong, parallel-veined leaves, the petioles of which are so rolled together as to appear like a stalk, and a single slender stem which bears small bell-shaped, nodding, fragrant, white flowers in a one-sided raceme ; the perianth, or what passes for corolla, has six recurved lobes, and at its base are six stamens ; the berry is few- seeded, and red when ripe. There is a variety with yellow-striped leaves, one with pinkish and another with double flowers, neither of Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis). which is equal to the original in beauty. The plant can hardly be said to need cultivation ; if planted in rich soil it takes possession, and the only care required is to prevent it from