Document Research on Name and Original Plant of Lily

Chinese name of Lily and its original plant are analyzed by researching ancient and modern literature. The results show that there are more than 30 different names of Lily plant in existing literature. Being the name of liliaceous plants, Lily is derived from morphology of the bulb in Erya(《尔雅翼》)and a herbal medicine for a disease named Baihe(百合病) in Compendium of Materia Medica (《本草纲 目》). In medical literature of ancient Chinese, there are also many species of original plants named as Lily. In addition to Lilium lancifoliam Thunb. ,Lilium brownii F. E. Brown var. viridulum Baker, Lilium pumilum DC. , other species such as Magnoliaceae or Leguminous plants are also regard as original plants of Lily. Therefore, its name and original plants are many and confused. This phenomenon should be clarified in research.