Lily. The white lily stands for purity. Artists for centuries have pictured the angel Gabriel coming to the Virgin Mary with a spray of lilies in his hand, to announce that she is to be the mother of the TURK’S. LILY is the family name of about 2,000 species of plants. Most are herbs (plants without woody stems). The family includes onion, asparagus, tulip, and hyacinth. The name comes from a group of perennials of the genus Lilium, often called the true lilies. Of the 80 or 90 species known, about 24 are natives of North America, about 50 are Asian, and 12 are European. True lilies have underground bulbs made of overlapping scales which contain stored food. Their flowers (except for rare double forms) have three sepals and three petals so nearly alike that all six often are called petals. The blossoms grow at the top of a leafy stalk. They are of many colors and shapes. Among the most beautiful are the white Madonna (Easter) lily; the Japanese Turk’s-cap with orange flowers spotted with red; the clustered dark-orange, purplish-spotted tiger lily; the scarlet coral lily; the gold-banded lily of Japan; and the pink Speciosum lily.

Lilies (chiefly lily bulbs) have served as human food in many countries. The ancient Greeks and Romans used some kinds in making certain salves and ointments. Lilies appeared as pottery decorations, in paintings, and in other forms of art hundreds of years ago. Species from many lands are cultivated in a number of countries, especially in Europe. From them, plant growers have developed popular hybrids and varieties of many colors and shapes, suited to different climates and uses. In most of the United States lilies bloom in almost every color (except blue). They can be grown from early summer to frost. Some kinds are grown as house plants. Many are raised each year in commercial greenhouses, especially for Easter.

To supply gardeners and other growers, thousands of different kinds of lily bulbs are raised in the United States, Japan, Bermuda, and many parts of Europe. New bulbs may be produced in several ways:

(1) By natural division of older bulbs.

(2) By small bulblets produced underground above or around the bulb.

(3) By aerial bulblets that grow in the leaf-axils of some species.

(4) By seeds, and from scales taken from bulbs. The word lily is included in the common name of many plants that are not true lilies. Among these are day lilies, plantain-lilies, Mari-pose-lilies, and trout-lilies or dogtooth violets. All of these are in the lily family but not of the genus Lilium. Others are calla lilies, in the same family as Jack-in-the-pulpit; belladonna lilies, of the Amaryllis family; and water lilies.

Rose is one of the most beautiful of all flowers. It is a symbol of fragrance and loveliness. Its name calls to mind pictures of the sweetbrier, or wild rose, the loveliest wild flower of the country roadsides. No other flower has been mentioned so often by the poets of all ages and all countries. In the language of flowers its blossoms have always been the symbol of love. The rose has even played its part in history. In England, when the Houses of York and Lancaster were fighting for power, they chose white and red roses respectively for their emblems. The flowers gave their name to the War of the Roses. Today the rose is the national flower of England. It is also the state flower of several states in the United States. The rose is not limited to any one country, however. Its many species and varieties can be found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. They will even grow in the mountain districts of the tropics. All present-day roses are descendants of wild roses. We may doubt this if we compare a full-flowered cultivated bloom with a five-petaled swamp or prairie rose. But many wild-rose species tend to bear double blooms—flowers with more than five petals. A skillful gardener can select a wild rose plant that shows an occasional double blossom, give it and its descendants expert care for several years, and produce plants that consistently bear handsome double flowers.

Until the 19th century all rose culture was of this type. Many species were popular for cultivation, including cabbage, damask, and French roses. The cabbage (Rom centifolia) is a large pink rose that grows wild in the Caucasus. It was cultivated in ancient Greece and Rome. Later the French called it Flower experts recognize three main classes of cultivated roses. Members of the first class, sometimes called old roses, bloom once a year, usually in early summer. They include the yellow briers, damask roses, moss roses, and many climbers. The second kind of roses bloom in early summer and again in fall. The best-known members of this class are called perpetual roses or summer-and-autumn roses— are the hybrid perpetuals. Members of the third main class, the ever blooming hybrids, flower almost constantly during the growing season. These roses include floribundas, grandifloras, hybrid teas, and polyanthas.

Oxalis, is the name of a large group of plants that grow chiefly in South Africa and South America. There are about 850 species of oxalis. Many species grow as weeds. However, some species are cultivated as ornamental plants and are grown in hanging baskets, window gardens, or rock gardens.

Most kinds of oxalis grow from bulbs, from root like rhizomes, or from thickened underground stems called tubers. They have showy flowers that may be white or a variety of pastel colors. The leaves are shaped somewhat like clover leaves. Both the leaves and flowers close up at night the leaves taste sour because they an oxalis has clover-shaped leaves and colorful blossoms. The leaves and the flowers close up at night contain oxalic acid. The acid is so named because it comes from the oxalis plant the leaves of some kinds of oxalis can be used in salads. One species of oxalis is cultivated in South America for its edible tubers. Scientific classification. Oxalis belongs to the wood sorrel family, Oxalidaceae. They make up the genus Oxalis.

BUCKWHEAT is a quick-growing annual plant, grown for its shining, three-sided fruits or “grain.” The plants are native in Asia, but are grown also in Europe, Africa, and North America.

Three types of buckwheat are grown: common buckwheat, Tartary buckwheat, and notched or winged buckwheat. The U.S.S.R. was the world’s largest producer, followed by France, Poland, Canada, and the United States. Pennsylvania and New York produce more than half of the United States crop.

Most buckwheat is raised for the grain, which is fed to poultry, hogs, or cattle. In the United States and Canada, some is made into pancake flour and other foods. The straw and hulls are used as mulches to protect the roots of plants

From the flowers bees make buckwheat-flavored honey. The drug rutin is taken from the leaves and flowers. Rutin is used to reduce high blood pressure and is used in the treatment of radiation injury.

Buckwheat also is planted as a smother crop to stop weed growth; as a cover crop to prevent soil erosion; as “green manure” to add humus to soil; and in out of-the-way places as feed for game birds and animals.

Snowball, also called European cranberry bush or Guelder rose, is a handsome shrub of the honeysuckle family. It produces large, ball-shaped white flowers that grow in clusters. The plant is believed to be native to the Dutch province of Gelderland. Today, it is often grown in parks and lawns in the United States. It is a cultivated form of high bush cranberry and grows from 7 to 12 feet (2.1 to 3.7 meters) tall. The flowers of the cultivated species are sterile and do not produce fruit, but a wild variety bears juicy, red berries.

Scientific classification. The snowball is in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. It is Viburnum opulus. Snowdrop is the name of a group of flowering plants native Europe, the Middle East, and western Asia. Some species, including the common snowdrop of Europe, are commonly grown in gardens. Snowdrops bear nodding, white, bell-shaped flowers. Snowdrops are one of the earliest spring flowers, and they sometimes during warm spells in midwinter. Some snow-drops bloom in the fall. The common snowdrop is sometimes called the Fair Maid of February. Snowdrops grow from a small bulb that produces two or three narrow leaves and a flower stalk. The stalk of the common snowdrop usually grows from 4 to 9 inches (10 to 23 centimeters) tall. Snowdrops are easy to cultivate, and they grow best in partial shade and moist soil. The bulbs are planted 3 to 4 Inches (7.5 to 10 centimeters) deep in the fall. The plants multiply each year, and a few bulbs may eventually produce large clumps of snowdrops.

DAY LILY or HEMEROCALLIS is a common, flowering garden plant. Hemerocallis is the scientific name of the group (genus) of plants of the lily family. They bear large, showy, lily like flowers. Each lasts only for a day. The word Hemerocallis means “beautiful for a day.” About 20 species are known.

Day lilies are grown in gardens in North America, Europe, and Asia, their native land. Wild day lilies are usually orange or yellow, and bloom in June and July. Garden varieties and hybrids add shades of red to the colors, and blossom through a longer season. Long, narrow leaves grow at the base of the plant. In some oriental countries, the flowers, dried or pickled in brine, have been used in soups.

Day lilies are easy to grow, hardy, and generally free from pests and diseases. New plants are grown from seeds or from divisions of the thick roots. Plantain lilies, with white, blue, or lavender flowers, are sometimes called day lilies.

COWSLIP. The American wild flower most commonly called cowslip is the marsh marigold, which is really neither a cowslip nor a fanfold, but belongs to the crowfoot family, In their homesickness the first English colonists, when they saw its golden flowers, gave it the name of the fragrant yellow cowslip that dots English meadows in early spring. The marsh marigold grows in wet ground from the Carolinas to the Arctic, and bears its large, buttercup like blossoms on hollow, branching stems. Its kidney-shaped leaves are often gathered in the spring and cooked as “greens,” like spinach. Another wild flower called the American cowslip is the shooting star; this, like the English cowslip, belongs to the primrose family and bears its flowers in drooping clusters at the end of a leafless stalk, while its leaves are arranged in a flat rosette close to the ground. The flowers, however, are pink, white, or lilac, not yellow. Still another early spring wild flower sometimes called cowslip is the Virginia cowslip, bluebell, or lungwort. It belongs to the borage family and is related to the forget-me-not.

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS are plants that are able to capture insects and certain other small animals and consume them for food. These plants do not actually chew and swallow their prey as animals do. Instead, most carnivorous plants secrete juices that act life the digestive prices of the stomach. The victim is decomposed by these juices, and the decomposed matter is absorbed into the plant.

The rounded, or spoon shaped, leaves of sundews are covered with tentacles, each of which holds a drop of mucilage (a sticky liquid) at its tip. These drops glisten in the sunlight like dewdrops, thereby giving the plant its name. When an insect crawls onto a leaf, the mucilage holds it fast as the insect struggles to get free the plant secretes more liquid until at last the insect is smothered. In a short time the tentacles close around the insect’s body, and the plant secretes the juice that digests the victim. Digestion may take several days. When it is complete, the tentacles open, and the plant awaits another victim.

Sundews always grow in wet places. They are found in many parts of the world. The greatest variety of species grows in Australia and southern Africa. The few species that grow in North America are widespread across the continent

Butterworts have oval, yellowish-green leaves that are greasy in appearance because of their mucilage coating. When an insect alights on one of these leaves, the mucilage holds it and the leaf begins to curl inward. The plant secretes more mucilage, and, when the insect is trapped, the digestive juices are secreted.

Butterworts are found throughout the North Temperate Zone. The most widespread species is Pinguicula vulgaris, also called the bog violet because its purplish blossoms resemble violets.

Venus’s – Flytraps and Bladderworts. Perhaps the most remarkable of the carnivorous plants are the group that have trap like mechanisms. The leaves of the well-known Venus’s-flytrap (Dionaea) look somewhat like open clamshells. Each leaf is composed of two semicircular halves, or lobes. The outer edges of the lobes are fringed with stiff bristles. On the inner side of each lobe are three extremely sensitive bristles. Insects are attracted to the leaves by nectar secreted near the edges of the lobes. When an insect brushes the trigger hairs, the trap snaps shut and the fringe of outer bristles interlock like fingers of clasped hands. In a few days the captured insect is digested, and the trap reopens. The trap, however, is able to feed only two or three times at the most before it turns black and shrivels up.

The Venus’s flytrap is found only along the coasts of North and South Carolina. It grows nowhere else in the world. It thrives in moist areas, often in company with pitcher plants and sundews.

Bladderworts (Utriculcrim) also capture their victims with trap like parts. These small aquatic plants may be free floating or anchored to the bottom of a pond or swamp pool. Only the flowering stalks rise above the surface. Among the submerged leaves are tiny baglike growths. At the mouth of each of these bladders is a trapdoor. The trapping mechanisms vary among the several species, but the common bladderwort, Utricuhria vulgaris, has stiff bristles at the opening of the trapdoor. Tiny insects or water animals, such as crustaceans and larvae, brush against these trigger bristles, causing the trapdoor to open. The water rushes into the hollow bladder, sucking the creature inside; where it is digested. The trapdoor then resets itself. Unlike the Venus’s flytrap, the bladderwort is able to continue trapping victims for a longer period of time.

Thistle is a term applied to many kinds of plants which have noticeably prickly or spiny leaves or stems. Many of them are troublesome weeds. Others, such as the globe and star thistles, are grown as ornamentals. Star thistles are close relatives of the cornflowers, or bachelor’s-buttons. The Russian thistle, or turn-blueweed, belongs to the same family as the beet. It was introduced into the United States from Russia in flaxseed. When mature, tumbleweeds break off at the surface of the soil. They may be blown long distances by the wind, thus scattering their seeds. The weed is especially troublesome in the western United States.

The most common thistles, as well as the globe and star thistles, belong to a special group of the very large family Compositae. Their small tubular flowers, which range in color from purple to white or yellow, are borne in prickly heads. When all the flowers in a head have finished blooming they wither and their small dry, seed like fruits ripen. Each fruit develops long silky hairs. The fruit may then break from the head and be borne away by the wind. Thistles may be spread long distances in this manner. There are several very troublesome thistles in the United States. One of these is the large bull thistle common in pasture lands and fields in the eastern states. During its first year of growth it develops a large coarse rosette close to the ground. The second year the stem elongates, bears flowers, and matures seed. The whole plant then dies. Probably the most troublesome of all thistles is the lavender-flowered Canada thistle. Smaller than the bull thistle but more persistent as a weed, it lives many years instead of only two. It spreads by means of seeds and through its long underground stems or rootstocks. These stems are not reached or dug out readily by cultivation tools. They are easily broken, however, and each broken part left in the soil will form a complete new plant.

The usage of plants is quite common in various industries. Some plants are used in the manufacture of perfumes, though they have been largely replaced by chemically manufactured products. The oils of lavender, thyme, and rosemary are largely used in the perfume industry. Flowers are also used to a certain extent as drugs. The examples of such plants are arnica and cannabis, the essential substances are taken from the flowering tops of plants.

The nectar of flowers is used by the bees to make honey. But the most important value of flowers for people is the admiration for their beauty and the fruits which follow them. Great business enterprises deal with seeds, the breeding of young plants in nurseries, and the sale of trees, shrubs, and flowering plants as well as cut flowers.

It is possible to make flowers bloom all year long by planting in greenhouses and through the artificial forcing. For example, growing tulips as potted plants to make the bloom for Easter celebration. They are kept at a low temperature for a considerable period and then at a higher temperature to promote growth and flowering. For other plants is more important the length of light exposure. For example, chrysanthemums can be forced to bloom earlier and faster by covering them with black cloth so that they receive light for only 10 to 12 hours a day. On the other hand, poppies bloom only when the light exposure periods are rather long. Also, for a greater amount of bloom, plants should not be given the excess of nitrate fertilizer.

Growing potted plants can sometimes be increased by planting them in rather small pots in order to limit the root growth. Growing shrub plants can be increased by pruning so that the remaining branches become lighter. But it needs to be done with special care in order not to remove too many leaves thereby decrease the entire plant development.