The Botanical Magazine/Volume 2/64

by William Curtis

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[64] Hemerocallis fulva. Tawny Day-Lily.

Class and Order.

Hexandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.

Corolla campanulata: tubo cylindrico. Stamina declinata.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

HEMEROCALLIS fulva foliis lineari-subulatis carinatis, corollis fulvis. Lin. Syst. Vegetab. p. 339.

LILIUM rubrum asphodeli radice. Bauh. Pin. 80. The gold red Day-Lily. Park. Parad. p. 148. t. 149. f. 5.

N^o64

According to Linnæus, this species is a native of China.

It has long been inured to our climate, and few plants thrive better in any soil or situation, but a moist soil suits it best; its leaves on their first emerging from the ground, and for a considerable time afterwards, are of the most delicate green imaginable; the appearance which the plant assumes at this period of its growth is, indeed, so pleasing, that it may be said to constitute one half of its beauty; its blossoms which appear in July and August, are twice the size of those of the flava, of a tawny orange colour, without gloss or smell, the Petals waved on the edge, the flowers are rarely or never succeeded by ripe Capsules as in the flava, which is a circumstance that has been noticed by Parkinson; when these several characters, in which the fulva differs so essentially from the flava, are attentively considered, we shall wonder that Linnæus could entertain an idea of their being varieties of each other.

The Hemerocallis fulva, from its size, and from the great multiplication of its roots, is best adapted to large gardens and plantations.

May be propagated by parting its roots in Autumn.