LILIACEZ. 197 
SPECIES I1—ORNITHOGALUM PYRENAICUM. Lim. 
Pirate MDXXV. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCXXI. Fig. 1028. 
Bulb subsolitary, producing very few offsets, so that the plant does 
not grow in large clumps. Leaves nearly or quite decayed by the 
time the flowers expand, strapshaped-linear, narrowed from before the 
middle to the apex, widely channelled above, glaucous, without any 
white central stripe, glabrous. Flowers very numerous, in a rather 
dense elongate regular raceme. Pedicels longer than the flowers, spread- 
ing in flower, erect in fruit. Bracts ultimately a little shorter than the 
pedicels. Perianth leaves green, with greenish-white edges, green on 
the back, especially the three outer leaves. Filaments strapshaped, 
contracted into filiform a little above the middle, entire at the apex. 
In woods and bushy places. Very local, but often abundant where 
it does occur. Recorded from the counties of Somerset, Wilts, Sussex, 
Beds, and Gloucester, and to have been formerly found in Cambridge- 
shire. Surrey, Middlesex, and Salop have been reported as pro- 
ducing it, but only on doubtful authority. 
England. Perennial. Summer. 
Bulb flowering when about the size of a walnut, longer and more 
tapering upwards than in either of the other species, and usually very 
deeply buried. Leaves 1 to 2 feet long, flaccid, appearing towards the 
close of winter, and commonly quite decayed by the time the flowers 
expand. Scape 2 to 3 feet high, stout, terminated by a raceme, which 
is densely crowded in bud, but becomes more lax in flower, and still 
more so in fruit. Perianth leaves about } inch long, pale green, with 
white edges on the inside, deeper green on the outside. Anthers 
yellow. Fruit about the size of a cherry-stone, ovoid, with 6 furrows. 
Seeds about the size of No. 6 shot, black, nearly smooth when fresh, 
rugose when dry. 
Some authors divide O. pyrenaicum into two species, namely, O. 
eu and O. sulphureum. Whether these are distinct or no, 
have not means of deciding; but the Bath plant is the O. pyre- 
naicum of Boreau. By the kindness of M. Lenormand, I received 
from Professor Boreau living roots of his O. pyrenaicum and OQ, sul- 
phureum; the former throve and flowered in London, and was pre- 
cisely similar to the Bath plant sent me alive by Mr. T. B. Flower. 
QO. sulphureum never flowered, and died after the second year; it had 
the leaves much less glaucous than the other. 
Spiked Star of Bethlehem. 
French, Ornithogale des Pyrénées. 
This plant is a native of Greece, and is referred to by Theophrastus in his Hist. PI. 
