Distribution - Northern border of United States, westward to
Ontario, south to the Carolinas and West Virginia.
Erect, as if conscious of its striking beauty, this vivid lily
lifts a chalice that suggests a trap for catching sunbeams from
fiery old Sol. Defiant of his scorching rays in its dry habitat,
it neither nods nor droops even during prolonged drought; and vet
many people confuse it with the gracefully pendent, swaying bells
of the yellow Canada lily, which will grow in a swamp rather than
forego moisture. Li, the Celtic for white, from which the family
derived its name, makes this bright-hued flower blush to own it.
Seedmen, who export quantities of our superb native lilies to
Europe, supply bulbs so cheap that no one should wait four years
for flowers from seed, or go without their splendor in our
over-conventional gardens. Why this early lily is radiantly
colored and speckled is told in the description of the Canada
lily (q.v.).
The WESTERN RED LILY (L. umbellatum), that takes the place of the
Philadelphia species from Ohio, Minnesota, and the Northwest
Territory, southward to Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado, lifts
similar but smaller red, orange, or yellow flowers on a more
slender stem, two feet high or less, set with narrow, linear,
alternate leaves, or perhaps the upper ones in whorls.
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