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The Glory of the Lily
| Article
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19782 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1991 |
1,200 Words |
| Author
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Eloise Paananen
Eloise Paananen is a food and travel writer based in
Washington, D.C. |
When we think of Easter symbols, we imagine painted eggs, newborn chicks, Easter bunnies, brand-new clothes, a sparkling clean house, lighted candles, and flowers of every kind--primroses and daffodils, narcissi, anemones, and jonquils, even blossoming tree branches. But supreme among Easter flowers is the fragrant white waxy lily, massed, banked, or arranged on church altars and in homes. The lily's symbolism is rich: The bulb stands for the tomb of Jesus, and the blossoms for life after death: white signifies purity, while immortality is expressed by green.
The term lily describes any of a large group of plants grown from a bulb; a lily typically has a trumpet-shaped flower and comes in a variety of colors, not just the well-known white. Lilium longiflorum is the commercially grown kind we see in church and at the florist's, and millions of them are produced and distributed each year.
The familiar white Easter lily has a long and distinguished history, dating back hundreds, even thousands, of years. Its ancestor, L. candidum, is portrayed in 4,000 year-old frescoes and pottery unearthed in Crete. Bas-reliefs with lilies have been found in Nineveh, dating them at 700 B.C.; and the "father of botany," Theophrastus, described them in the fourth century B.C.
In the Middle Ages bulbs were eaten as a delicacy in Japan, Korea, and China, and in 1684, Engleber Kaempfer introduced the Far East's L. lancifolium to Europe. It wasn't long before botanists in several countries were experimenting with the interesting bulbs, which had overlapping scales joined together at the base.
American interest was sparked about a hundred years ago when a distressed vessel anchored in St. George, Bermuda. One of the passengers was a missionary returning from his assignment in Japan. A botanist, he had collected specimens of the "blunderbuss" or "gun lily," which he proudly presented to his friend Mr. Roberts, the Episcopal rector of Hamilton parish. The missionary also gave some to the postmaster. Bermuda's soil and climate turned out to be perfect for growth and blooming; and it wasn't long before lilies could be seen just about everywhere on the island.
In the 1880s, Mrs. Thomas P. Sargent of Philadelphia traveled to Bermuda. She saw and fell in love with the white trumpet lilies, locally known as Bermuda lilies, and brought bulbs back with her. She showed them to a nurseryman named William K. Harris, who introduced them to the florist trade as Lilium
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