There has been invented[1] also a method of tinting the lily, thanks to the taste of mankind for monstrous productions. The dried stalks[2] of the lily are tied together in the month of July, and hung up in the smoke: then, in the following March, when the small knots[3] are beginning to disclose themselves, the stalks are left to steep in the lees of black or Greek wine, in order that they may contract its colour, and are then planted out in small trenches, some semi-sextarii of wine-lees being poured around them. By this method purple lilies are obtained, it being a very remarkable thing that we should be able to dye a plant to such a degree as to make it produce a coloured flower.