The white garden-lily is a native of the Levant, but has become thoroughly naturalised in England, and is one of the commonest but most admired ornaments of our cottage-gardens. The old herbalists thought highly of its medicinal properties, and pronounced it a certain remedy for the bite of a serpent. It is true, at all events, that its bruised petals are an excellent cure for any ordinary wound or bruise. Our ancestors, among their other superstitious fancies, entertained the extraordinary belief that the price of a bushel of wheat in the ensuing season was foretold by the number of white cups which crowned the white lily's stem, each cup being estimated at one shilling. I opine that our modern farmers would feel dissatisfied if the Mark Lane averages were regulated by this simple standard. The common Turk's-cap lily (_Lilium martagon_) is identified with the ancient hyacinth, the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe." The orange lily (_Lilium bulbiferum_) is a native of Southern Europe. When the Dutch were at feud with the House of Orange, they were accustomed to root up this flower from their gardens, as some solace to their indignant feelings. [Illustration: FIG. 55.--Lily of the Valley.] * * * * * The garden lilies belong to the natural family of the _Liliaceæ_, which includes the following sub-orders:-- 1. _Tulipeæ_, tulip tribe; bulbous plants, with the segments of the perianth scarcely adherent in a tube. 2. _Hemerocallideæ_, day-lily tribe; bulbous plants, with a tubular perianth. 3. _Scilleæ_, or _Alliæ_, squill or onion tribe; bulbous, with black and brittle testa. 4. _Anthericeæ_ or _Asphodeleæ_, asphodel tribe; roots fascicled or fibrous, leaves neither coriaceous nor permanent. 5. _Convollarieæ_, lily of the valley tribe; stem developed as a rhizome or tuber. 6. _Asparageæ_, asparagus tribe; stem usually fully developed, arborescent, branched in some cases, and leaves frequently permanent and coriaceous. 7. _Alonieæ_, aloes tribe; stem usually developed, arborescent, with succulent leaves. 8. _Aphyllantheæ_, grass-tree tribe; characterised by a rush-like habit and membranous imbricated bracts. THE GENTIANS. Let me now direct your attention, reader, to a pretty plant, of very elegant appearance: crowned, as it is, by a cluster of rosy flowers, it would not disgrace our well-kept parterres. It is called the common Centaury (_Erythræa centaurium_). You will never see it in the fields side by side with the _Delphinium_; but in July and August will meet with it frequently on the borders of woodland paths and open glades.