Chap. 177. Of Crown Imperial.
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Page 288I. The Names. It has no Gr«* Name that we
Lufehai Turf ant and Turfandi : in Lasix, Corona tmpenalis, 6 Lilt urn Byzantinum _· Qufius will
in
have it to be the Hemerocallis of Dioscorides English, Crown Imperial.
II. The Kinds. It is of the Stock or Kindred of lollies; and among the wonderiul Variety of Lillies known at this day, of which some are \\ hite, some Orange Tawny, Ibme Red, some Yellow, forae Blulh, ibme Purple, some Spotted, others without Spots _·, some standing upright, others turning downwards, &c. This Crown Imperial, for its excelling Beauty and Stateliness, exacts the first place among them. Some have called it Lilium Perfieum, bur there is another which is more usually called by that Name, as shall be ihevved hereafter and therefore we rather chuse to call it Corona Imperialism the Crown Imperial, than by any other Name, for that this Name is now also more generally received. It is a singular Plant of the kind, yet some will have it, that there is a single and a double fort: but the Truth is, that as the Plant grows old, so does it grow rich, bringing forth a Crown of Flowers a-mong the uppermost green Leaves, which is, their double kind, altho1 indeed they are but one and the self-same Plant, which in time is thought to grow to a Triple Crown; all which is but accidental, and happens by the Age of the Root, and Fertility of the Soik,
HI. The Description. It has a thick, firm and solid bulbous Root, covered with a yellowish Film cr Skin, composed of fewer, but much thicker Scales than any other Lilly, except the Perfian, and docs grow sometimes to be as great as a pretty big Childs Head, and somewhat flat withal. From the sides whereof, and not from the bottom, it shoots forth long thick Fibres, which perish every Pear, having & hole in the midst thereof at the end of the Fear, when the old Stalk is dry and withered, and out of the which a new Stalk does spring again (from a Bud or Head to be seen within the Hollowness on the one side) the following Year : the Stalk then filling up the
Page 289Hollowness, and thus springing up, rifts up to be three or four feet high, being great, round, and of a purplish color at the bottom., but green above, beset from thence to the middle thereof, with many long and broad grten Leaves, very like to the Leaves of our Common white Lilly, but something shorter and narrower, confusedly without Order, and from the middle upwards it is bare or naked without Leaves, for a certain /pace _·, and then it bears four, fix or ten Flowers, more or lej's, according to the Age of the Root, and the Fertility of the Earth where it grows. The Buds at the first appearing are whitish, /landing upright among a Bush or Tuft of green Leaves, /mailer than those below, and /landing above the blozcers ; after a while they turn them/elves, and hang downwards, every one upon its ozvn Foot-stalk, round about the great Stem or Stalk, sometimes of an even depth, and sometimes again one lower or higher than another, which Flowers are almost in Form like to those of an ordinary Lilly, but somewhat lesser and closer, consisting of fix Leaves, of an Orange color, striped with purplish Lines and Veins, which add a great Grace and Beauty to the Flowers. At the bottom of the Flowers next unto the Stalk, every Leaf thereof has on the outside a certain Bunch or Eminence flicking forth, of a dark purplish color-, and on the inside there lies in those hollow bunched places, certain clear drops of Water, like unto Pearls, of ά very sweet Taste, almost like to Sugar or Honey. In the midst of each Flower is a long white Stile or Pointel, forked or divided at the end; and fix white Chives tipt with yellowish Pendents, standing close about it: after the Flowers are past,fix-square Seed-Vessels appear, standing upright, winged as it were, or welted on the edges, yet seeming but three-square, because each couple of those welted edges are joined closer together. In these Pods or Vessels are contained broad, flat and thin Seeds, of a pale brownish color, like unto other Lillies, but much greater and thicker also. The Stalk of this Plant does sometimes grow fiat, two, three or four Fingers broad, and then bears many more Flowers, but then generally they are smaller than when it bears round Stalks. Sometime, it happens that the Stalk is divided at the top, carry ing two or three Tufts of green Leaves, without any Flowers on them : and sometimes likewise it bears two or three Heads or Crowns of Flowers (as we have before hinted at left. 2. above) upon one Stalk this is not often feen, but when it happens, it is meerly accidental. The whole Plant, and every part thereof, Roots, Leaves and Flowers do smell somewhat strong, much like to the Scent of a Fox \ which, if a-ny do but come near it, they cannot cbufe but smell it,
IV. The Places. This Plant was first brought from Constantinople into our Country among other bulbous "Roots, and being made Dentzons in our Gardens, they are now become Natives of our Land, where they thrive admirably well.
V. The Times. They flower in April, and sometimes in March, if the Weather is mild; and the Heads with Seed are ripe in the end of May and in June. It is quick in its Growth, but it springs not out of the Ground till the end o__ February or beginning of March.
VI. The Qualities, Specification, Preparations, Virtues and Uses, are the same with those of the White and Orange-tawny IJlly, treated of in some of the following Chapters, to which you are referred.
VII. Observ. 1. To obtain the true color of the Flowers of this noble Plant: Take Sap-berries, and fry them in steep in a proportional quantity of fair Water for two hours, and mix a little Saffron in that Infusion, and it will give the perfed color, to iunne or illumine the Flower withal.
VIII. Observ. 2. As in the bottom of each o*: these Bells, there is placed fix drops of moit pure clear mining Water, sweet in Taste, like to Sugar, resembling in Shew rair Oriental Pearls; these drops, if you take them away, new and fresh drops will immediately come in their places again. But if they may be futiered to continue in the Flower, they will never tall away, no, tho* you strike the *lant till it is broken.
Botanologia, or The English Herbal, was written by William Salmon, M.D., in 1710.
