116 SWISS FLOWERS. 



96. Ornithogalum. 



{PLATE LVL) 



The Star of Bethlehem is the most commonly known 

 representative of this family, one which is not particularly 

 striking. The same cannot be said of O. nutans (Fig. 96), 

 which, when seen in its perfection, is one of the loveliest 

 of flowers ; not so much from its colour, which has been 

 described as watery white, with a belt of green on the 

 back, but this is so mixed and softened as to produce a 

 far more pleasing effect than is found in the Star of Beth- 

 lehem. The flower is large of its kind ; it grows up a stalk 

 about a foot high, on little stalks about an inch long, with a 

 membranous bract at the base of each, and at length bends 

 down. The six sepals, each an inch long, enclose six broad 

 petal-like filaments ending in two points which have the 

 anther between them, the three alternate smaller. Leaves 

 channelled, rather long, not half-an-inch wide. In orchards 

 and meadows : neighbourhood of Geneva, Compesieres ; 

 Neydensj Nyon. 



