1507 



ASPHODELUS* luteus ; vat. sibiricus. 

 Siberian Yellow Asphodel. 



HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Asphodele/e Juss. {Introduction to the natural system of 

 Botany, p. 273.) 



ASPHODELUS Linn. — Perianthium concolor, hexaphyllum, patulum, 

 subinoequale. Filamenta subulata, arcuata, 3 seepius breviora, basi dilatata 

 in fornices ovarium tegentes. Stylus subarcuatus. Perianthium baccatum, 

 3-loculare, subtri valve, succo luteo scatens. Semina triquetra, subsolitaria. 

 Herbse caulescentes, radicibus fasciculatis, caulibus foliosis. 



A. luteus ; caule toto foliis subulato-triquetris vaginato simplici, bracteis basi 

 membranaceis dilatatis apice subulatis pedicellos sequantibus. 



A. luteus. Linn, et aliorum. 



/S sibiriczis ; bracteis minoribus brevioribus, caule humiliore, floribus prae- 

 cocioribus pallidioribus. 



" ? Asph. sibiricus. H. Wiln. 1824," ex R. et Sch. 



The Yellow Asphodel, a native of both shores of the 

 Mediterranean, of Dalmatia and Tauria, is the queen of 



* That so beautiful a flower as this should have been chosen by the 

 Grecian poets to adorn the plains inhabited by departed spirits, is not sur- 

 prising. When Mercury conducted the souls of Penelope's suitors to their 

 final abode, 



" they reach'd the earth's remotest ends ; 



And now the gates where evening Sol descends, 



And Leucas' rock, and Ocean's utmost streams, 



And now pervade the dusky land of Dreams ; 



And rest at last, where souls unbodied dwell 



In ever-flowering meads of Asphodel." 



It appears, however, that the u<r$ohxos of Homer was A. ramosus rather 

 than A. luteus ; the latter of which is rare in Greece, and unknown in Spain 

 as a wild plant; while the former is to this day called uo-fo^iXx, in the 

 Peloponnesus, where it is one of the most common plants, and where its 

 roots are manufactured by the Turks into a paste called kerish : it is also 

 abundant in the south of Spain, and near the Leucadian rock (Gibraltar). 

 Ecluse and Lbfling found vast plains covered with it in that country. The 

 roots of A. ramosus were eaten by the ancient Greeks, and formed a part of 

 the usual food of Pythagoras and his disciples. — See Sprcng. hist. r. herb. 



VOL. XVIII. F 



