There was nothing in any part of the gardens to equal this bed of homely, hardy lilies. It was perfectly lovely! The great yellow bells hanging in pyramidal masses were as elegant as they were gorgeous, and had the plant been growing in a hot-house it would have been looked upon as one of the choicest productions of the tropics. It was by no means the first time that we had seen this lily; but never before had we seen it in such perfection. Each flower-spike was perfect and bore from two to thirty blossoms. Of all the Martagons, _L. Monodelphum_ and its varieties is unquestionably the finest. Indeed, in none of the groups of lilies will you find more than two or three which will beat this species for splendour. It is in the higher reaches of the Caucasus and the western parts of Persia that this lily is at home. And surely there can be but few finer sights in nature than a great mass of these lilies growing on a hill-side. _Lilium Monodelphum_ is one of the most characteristic of all the lilies. It grows to the height of four or five feet and bears a great pyramid of large, bright, canary-coloured blossoms, tinged with purple at the base and slightly spotted with black. The pollen is yellow. Though this lily is placed with the Martagons, it has but little in common with the lilies we considered last month. The flowers strongly recall _Lilium Nepaulense_. They are very long and but slightly recurved, hanging downwards like yellow bells and swaying gently in the breeze. This plant has a very strong scent, which, though pleasant in the open ground, is intolerable in a room. This is one of the few lilies which bear seed freely in England. In some seasons every blossom will be succeeded by a long six-sided pod. The seed, however, takes very long to grow. In many ways _L. Monodelphum_ resembles _L. Auratum_. One of these ways is the extreme variability to which both are subject. The colour of this species is usually of a bright canary yellow; but we have seen specimens of a very pale lemon colour with very few spots. Another not uncommon variety has deep almost saffron-coloured blossoms. Then there is great variety in the size and number of the spots. One variety, called _Szovitzianum_, is very freely spotted, while the type is often quite free from spots. The colour of the pollen is also variable. In _Szovitzianum_ it is chocolate colour, whilst in the other varieties it is yellow. Even the shape of the flowers is variable, some varieties having blossoms far more recurved than others. It is usual to divide the various varieties of _L. Monodelphum_ under two heads. The first contains the typical or monodelphous forms. Here the blossoms are but little recurved, of a deep yellow, with yellow anthers. These varieties are said to flower two or three weeks before the second group; but we have not observed any difference in this respect.