GARLIC EL] 
it three days, and was at last the victor, but was badly wounded, and 
wherever his blood flowed lilies of the valley sprang up. It was 
regarded as symbolic of the return of happiness, and as to its per- 
fume of sweetness Keats says: 
“No flower amid the garden fairer grows 
Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale, 
’ 
The Queen of flowers ”, 
Its snow-white beauty symbolizes purity. It is gathered by all on 
Whit Monday in Hanover, where it is called May Bloom. A person 
who plants a bed of lilies will die during the next twelve months, so it 
is considered unlucky. 
The flowers are fragrant when fresh, but when dry are narcotic. 
Powdered, the plant induces sneezing. It is purgative, and bitter as 
aloes when an extract from the roots is prepared. 
Lime is used to prepare a green colour from the leaves. 
EssENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
300. Convallaria mazjalis, 1..—Scape semi-cylindrical, radical leaves 
paired, lanceolate, ovate, flowers white, campanulate, in a raceme, 6-12, 
berry red. 
Garlic (Allium ursinum, L.) 
The distribution of this beautiful but strong-smelling liliaceous plant 
is quite modern, being the N. Temperate Zone in Europe, except 
Greece and N. Asia. In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula, 
Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces; in S. Wales, except 
in Cardigan; in N. Wales, except in Montgomery; in the Trent pro- 
vince, except in S. Lincs; in the Mersey, Humber, Tyne, and Lakes 
provinces; and in the West and E. Lowlands, except in Elgin; in the 
W. Highlands, except in Mid Ebudes; in the N. Highlands; and in 
the Hebrides only in the Northern Isles. It is general elsewhere from 
Skye and Ross to the English Channel, and in Yorks rises to 1200 ft. 
It is native in Ireland. 
Garlic is a decidedly local though widespread plant, Watson having 
only met with it once in North Britain, and not in Surrey, where it is 
common. It grows in damp hollows in woods and copses, and also in 
shady lanes under hedges, and in hedgerows in fields where there is 
plenty of cover. 
Garlic grows from a bulb. This tends to bury itself deeper and 
deeper in the soil. Garlic has much the habit of Lily-of-the-Valley, 
with radical leaves, solid, flat, lance-shaped, stalked, few, broad, and 
