C 8o 5 ] 



Ornithogalum Caudatum. Long-Spiked 



Star of Bethlehem. 

 t 



G7<j/i d«J Order. 



Hexandria Monogynia. 



Generic CbaraHer. — ?3& O as. in Scilla ^//o/w fupra 746. 



Specific Cbaraf/er and Synonyms. 



ORNITHOGALUM caudatum bulbo magno ovato, extra 



terram prominente, virefcente; foliis 

 lato-linearibus, acuminatis, fenioribus 

 nonnullis longius tereti-caudatis atque 

 reflexis ; raccmo longiflimo, crebro, 

 angufto ; ftaminibus tribus latioribus 

 ovato - cuneiformibus j ftigmate fim* 

 plici. G. 



ORNITHOGALUM caudatum. Hort. Kew. 1. 442. Mart, 



Mill. DicJ. Jacq. ic. rar. 2. /. 423. 

 Coll. 2. 315. Willd. Sp. PL 2. 125. 



This is the largeft fpecies that we are acquainted with ; the 

 bulb, which is chiefly above ground and greenifh, is fome- 

 times the fize of a child's head ; the leaves about a foot and 

 half in length, about inch and half broad, [lightly channelled, 

 older ones terminated by a round thickifh tail or cufpis from 

 one to fix inches in length, the one figured in our plate is 

 young and without this appendage ; the Item is nearly three 

 feet high, the raceme nearly one and a half and about two 

 inches in diameter j peduncles fparfe, patent, about an inch 

 long; braftes membranous, whitifh ; corolla fmall in propor- 

 tion to the plant, rotate ; fegments fomewhat thickened at the 

 ends, lanceolate, oblong, patent, about half an inch long, the 

 three inner ones have their ends Highly involute ; filaments 

 erecl, broad downwards, the three alternate ones which ftand 

 on the exterior fegments are firft oblong and then awled, the 

 three others ovate-wedged and pointed; ftyle the length of 

 the filaments ; ftigmafimple. The flowers are faid by Jacquin 

 to fmell like plums; blooms from February to Auguft ; pro- 

 pagates rapidly by offsets and fhould be kept in a greenhoufe; 

 there is a variety with variegated leaves which is very com- 

 mon among the Nurferymen about town. Brought from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, by Mr. Masson, in 1774, where it W 

 found near Sea-Cow River, generally growing on old flumps 

 of trees that are full of mould and rotten wood. G. 



