17 APRIL 1953, Page 20

Blue African "Lilies"

SIR,--If Mr. Kirkbride is going to allow every member of the liliaceae to be called a lily, we shall get into sad confusion; if an, agapanthus is to be called a lily, why not extend the vulgarism and allow arum " lilies " and belladonna " lilies " ? No doubt some early settler, when like Ruth he stood in tears amid the alien corn sick for home, called an agapanthus It blue lily; the same kind of nostalgia called that beefy American thrush a robin. The agapanthus can be effective in south- western borders, but most of us think of it as an agglomeration of flaccid green straps in a tub out of which cups of not too clear a blue rise sparsely. We should not call such invalids lilies: Mrs. Maxwell