The Botanical Magazine/Volume 1/30

by William Curtis

[ 30 ]

Lilium chalcedonicum. Chalcedonian Lily.

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Class and Order.

Hexandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.

Cor. 6-petala, campanulata: linea longitudinali nectarifera. Caps. valvulis pilo cancellato connexis.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

LILIUM chalcedonicum foliis sparsis lanceolatis, floribus reflexis, corollis revolutis. Lin. Syst. Vegetab. p. 324.

LILIUM byzantium miniatum. Bauh. Pin. 78.

The Red Martagon of Constantinople. Park. Parad. p. 34.

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This species is best known in the nurseries by the name of the Scarlet Martagon; but as it is not the Martagon of Linnæus, to avoid confusion it will be most proper to adhere to the name which Linnæus has given it.

It is a native not only of Persia, but of Hungary; Professor Jacquin, who has figured it in his most excellent Flora Austriaca, describes it as growing betwixt Carniola and Carinthia, and other parts of Hungary, but always on the tops of the largest mountains.

It varies in the number of its flowers, from one to six, and the colour in some is found of a blood red.

Authors differ in their ideas of its smell: Jacquin describing it as disagreeble, while Scopoli compares it to that of an orange.

It flowers in June and July; and is propagated by offsets, which it produces pretty freely, and which will grow in almost any soil or situation.

The best time for removing the roots is soon after the leaves are decayed, before they have begun to shoot.