472 CONVALLARIA. [class vi. order i. 



1. C. maja'lis, Linn, (Fig. 536.) Lily of the Valley. Scape naked, 

 semi-cylindrical ; flowers in a naked drooping raceme, globoso-cam- 

 panulate ; leaves two or ihree, ovate-lanceolate. 



English Botany, t. 1035. — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 154. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 158.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 270. 



Root of numerous long branched much matted fibres, and wiry 

 creeeping underground stems, putting out occasional whorls of fibres. 

 Leaves two, sometimes three, ovate-lanceolate, from three to four inches 

 long, of a fine rather dark green, having a mid-rib and numerous 

 slender parallel veins, footstalks mostly as long as the leaves, thin, 

 dilated, embracing each other, and with the scape enveloped at the 

 base with several obtuse pale pink or white membranous sheaths. 

 Scape erect, round, or somewhat angular, from four to six inches long, 

 terminating in a raceme^ of drooping pure white Jlowers, having a de- 

 lightful fragrance, each flower on a slender curved stalk, Irom the 

 bottom of a pale thin lanceolate bractea, about half as long. Perianth 

 globose, bell-shaped or cup-shaped, with six ribs, terminating in six 

 acutely lanceolate reflexed teeth. Stamens with short awl-shaped 

 ^laments inserted into the base of the perianth. Anthers erect, ellip- 

 tical, cloven, of two cells, bursting laterally. Style erect, as long as 

 the stamens, thickened upwards. Stigma obtuse, triangular. Fruit 

 a round scarlet berry, as large as a black currant, having three cellsj 

 and each cell one or two seeded. 



Habitat. — Groves and woods in a damp sandy or loamy soil ; in 

 various parts of England and Scotland. " Scarcely indigenous" in 

 Ireland. 



Perennial ; flowering in May. 



Few, if any, of our native plants are more general favourites than 

 the Lily of the Valley. It is easy of cultivation in any retired or shady 

 part of the garden ; or let the fair admirer of nature's brightest gems, 

 as the poet Thompson sings, 



" Seek the bank where flowering elders crowd, 



Where scatter'd wild the lily of the vale, 

 Her balmy essence breaths." 



And will not the examination of its simple drooping bells of purest 

 white in the still calm retreat, its usual place of birth, recall with ten- 

 fold force the beautiful expression of Him, whose words are truth, and 

 who says, " Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil 

 not, neither do they spin : and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, 

 in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." — Matthew, ch. vi., 

 V. 28. 29. 



Perhaps of all the forms of nature there are none better suited to the 

 reflecting mind than the vegetable creation ; we can take the different 

 species of it in our hands, and examine them in every way ; we can 

 puttliem to every test of our invention, and we find all their parts so 

 simple, and yet so beautiful, that while they assist our minds in admi- 



