The lily holds the next highest rank after the rose, and has a certain affinity1912 with it in respect of its unguent and the oil extracted from it, which is known to us as “lirinon.”1913 Blended, too, with roses, the lily1914 produces a remarkably fine effect; for it begins to make its appearance, in fact, just as the rose is in the very middle of its season. There is no flower that grows to a greater height than the lily, sometimes, indeed, as much as three cubits; the head of it being always drooping, as though the neck of the flower were unable to support its weight. The whiteness of the lily is quite remarkable, the petals being striated on the exterior; the flower is narrow at the base, and gradually expanding in shape like a tapering1915 cup with the edges curving outwards, the fine pistils of the flower, and the stamens with their antheræ of a saffron colour, standing erect in the middle.1916 Hence the perfume of the lily, as well as its colour, is two-fold, there being one for the petals and another for the stamens. The difference, however, between them is but very small, and when the flower is employed for making lily unguents and oils, the petals are never rejected.

There is a flower, not unlike the lily, produced by the plant known to us as the “convolvulus.”1917 It grows among shrubs, is totally destitute of smell, and has not the yellow antheræ of the lily within: only vying with it in its whiteness, it would almost appear to be the rough sketch1918 made by Nature when she was learning how to make the lily. The white lily is propagated in all the various ways which are employed for the cultivation of the rose,1919 as also by means of a certain tearlike gum1920 which belongs to it, similarly to hipposelinum1921 in fact: indeed, there is no plant that is more prolific than this, a single root often giving birth to as many as fifty bulbs.1922 There is, also, a red lily, known by the name of “crinon”1923 to the Greeks, though there are some authors who call the flower of it “cynorrodon.”1924 The most esteemed are those of Antiochia and Laodicea in Syria, and next to them that of Phaselis.1925 To the fourth rank belongs the flower that grows in Italy.