Proserpina, Volume 1 | Page 2

LILIASTRUM, SAVOY ANTHERICUM, or ST.
BRUNO'S LILY.
Class and Order.
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA.
Generic Character.
Cor. 6-petala, patens. Caps. ovata.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
ANTHERICUM Liliastrum foliis planis, scapo simplicissimo, corollis
campanulatis, staminibus declinatis. Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14. Murr.
p. 330. Ait. Kew. v. I. p. 449.
HEMEROCALLIS floribus patulis secundis. Hall. Hist. n. 1230.
PHALANGIUM magno flore. Bauh. Pin. 29.
PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum majus. Clus. cur. app. alt.
PHALANGIUM Allobrogicum. The Savoye Spider-wort. Park. Parad.
p. 150. tab. 151. f. 1.
* * * * *
Botanists are divided in their opinions respecting the genus of this plant;
LINNÆUS considers it as an Anthericum, HALLER and MILLER
make it an Hemerocallis.
It is a native of Switzerland, where, HALLER informs us it grows
abundantly in the Alpine meadows, and even on the summits of the
mountains; with us it flowers in May and June.
It is a plant of great elegance, producing on an unbranched stem about a

foot and a half high, numerous flowers of a delicate white colour, much
smaller but resembling in form those of the common white lily,
possessing a considerable degree of fragrance, their beauty is
heightened by the rich orange colour of their antheræ; unfortunately
they are but of short duration.
MILLER describes two varieties of it differing merely in size.
A loamy soil, a situation moderately moist, with an eastern or western
exposure, suits this plant best; so situated, it will increase by its roots,
though not very fast, and by parting of these in the autumn, it is usually
propagated.
PARKINSON describes and figures it in his Parad. Terrest., observing
that "divers allured by the beauty of its flowers, had brought it into
these parts."
* * * * *
{4}
Which said book was therefore undertaken, to put, if it might be, some
elements of the science of botany into a form more tenable by ordinary
human and childish faculties; or--for I can scarcely say I have yet any
tenure of it myself--to make the paths of approach to it more pleasant.
In fact, I only know, of it, the pleasant distant effects which it bears to
simple eyes; and some pretty mists and mysteries, which I invite my
young readers to pierce, as they may, for themselves,--my power of
guiding them being only for a little way.
Pretty mysteries, I say, as opposed to the vulgar and ugly mysteries of
the so-called science of botany,--exemplified sufficiently in this chosen
page. Respecting which, please observe farther;--Nobody--I can say
this very boldly--loves Latin more dearly than I; but, precisely because
I do love it (as well as for other reasons), I have always insisted that
books, whether scientific or not, ought to be written either in Latin, or
English; and not in a doggish mixture of the refuse of both.

Linnæus wrote a noble book of universal Natural History in Latin. It is
one of the permanent classical treasures of the world. And if any
scientific man thinks his labors are worth the world's attention, let him,
also, write {5} what he has to say in Latin, finishedly and exquisitely, if
it take him a month to a page.[2]
But if--which, unless he be one chosen of millions, is assuredly the
fact--his lucubrations are only of local and temporary consequence, let
him write, as clearly as he can, in his native language.
This book, accordingly, I have written in English; (not, by the way, that
I could have written it in anything else--so there are small thanks to
me); and one of its purposes is to interpret, for young English readers,
the necessary European Latin or Greek names of flowers, and to make
them vivid and vital to their understandings. But two great difficulties
occur in doing this. The first, that there are generally from three or four,
up to two dozen, Latin names current for every flower; and every new
botanist thinks his eminence only to be properly asserted by adding
another.
The second, and a much more serious one, is of the Devil's own
contriving--(and remember I am always quite serious when I speak of
the Devil,)--namely, that the most current and authoritative names are
apt to be founded on some unclean or debasing association, so that to
interpret them is to defile the reader's mind. I will give no instance; too
many will at once occur to any {6} learned reader, and the unlearned I
need not vex with so much as one: but, in such cases, since I could only
take refuge in the untranslated word by leaving other Greek or Latin
words also untranslated, and the nomenclature still entirely
senseless,--and I do not choose to do this,--there is only one other
course open to me, namely, to substitute boldly, to my own pupils,
other generic names for the plants