20 THE AMERICAxN BOTANIST 



The Latins called the garHc Alliiiiii aiul ])y that name this 

 plant and all its pungent relations have C(;ntinued to he called. 

 An onion-like genus of the South is known as Xot/ioscodiiiiu 

 from two words meaning false onion. The generic name of 

 the star-of-Bethlehem is Oniifliogahtiii and the application 

 of this has always been a puzzle, for it signifies bird's milk. 

 One translator hazards the guess that is refers to the milk- 

 white flowers like the white of an (^^^fi;, but this seems an ex- 

 planation made for the occasion with no basis in fact. The 

 grape hyacinths, natives of Europe but naturalized in some 

 places on this side, are found in the genus Muscari named for 

 the musk-like odor of some species. The true hyacinths be- 

 long to the genus 1 1 yacinthus whicli probably commemorates 

 that Hyacinthus of Grecian fable who was accidentally killed 

 by Apollo and from whose blood the first hyacinths are reputed 

 to have sprung. The description of the original hyacinths, 

 however, does not appear to fit our plants. One of the flowers 

 often associated with the liyacinth is the Asphodel of the genus 

 Asphodelns which, in the Greek, means unsurpassed, and is 

 sru'd to allude to the Ijeauty of the flowers. This may have 

 been true of the first flowers to bear the generic name, but in 

 the shifting of terms so common in botany, the name is now 

 anchored to j)lants which hardly come up to tlie specifications. 



The planl^^ usually placed in the Lily-of-lhe-\'alley Fam- 

 ilv are less lilv-like in appearance than those previously men- 

 tioned, 1)Ut the family name. Convallariaceae, according to 

 (irav, was derived from a lily — Liliiiiii convallariuin. \\'o(k1 

 savs, however, that the name is tlerived from the Latin Coii- 

 I'lillaris, "a valley." where some species grow. The name of 

 the so-called wild lily-of-the-\'alley. Moiaiithciiniiii or Majau- 

 thcminn, is formed from tlie Greek .Maia. one of Pleides, and 

 the word (tntltos. meaning flower. It is truly translated "May- 

 fl(n\er." The genus is sometimes known as Unifoliuiu mean- 



