They are very thick in Viscum album, and are well seen in Phaseolus inultiflorus and Lilium Martagon.
They are present from the beginning of the development of the cell-wail, and arise from the spindle fibres, all of which may be continued as connecting threads (endosperm of Tamus communis), or part of them may be overlaid by cellulose lamellae (endosperm of Lilium Martagon), or they may be all overlaid as in pollen mother-cells and pollen grains of Helleborus foetidus.
The typical genus Lilium and Fritillaria are widely distributed in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.
A more important work, the Practica seu lilium medicinae, of Bernard Gordon, a Scottish professor at Montpellier (written in the year 1307), was more widely spread, being translated into French and Hebrew, and printed in several editions.
The word "lily" is loosely used in connexion with many plants which are not really liliums at all, but belong to genera which are Madonna or White Lily (Lilium candidum).