Lilies and Ontons 335 
but only the Spiked Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum ° 
pyrenaicum) is native, though it 1s of very restricted 
range over a few counties. In the neighbourhood of 
Bath it grows abundantly, and the young shoots are 
sold in Bath market in spring as French Asparagus, 
and eaten instead of the true Asparagus. The bulbs 
of O. wmbellatum, the Star of Bethlehem, are cooked 
and eaten in Palestine. These plants still retain the 
ancestral green on the outside of the perianth, and a 
streak of the same colour on each segment inside, 
looking as though on the way to becoming white as 
in Ramsons. The Yellow Star of Bethlehem (Gagea 
lutea) belongs to another genus; it is fertilised by 
bees, but open only in the morning. The stigmas 
ripen before the anthers. 
The neat and pretty Fritillary, or Snake’s-head 
(Fritillaria meleagris), has adapted itself to the visits 
of bees by overlapping the edges of its perianth- 
segments without soldering them together, and by 
colouring them in a chequered pattern of pink and 
purple. Into this drooping bell the bee flies, alighting 
on the stigmas, which are brushed by its abdomen as 
it climbs over the anthers to reach the honey, secreted 
by glands at the base of the ovary. This passage of 
the anthers loads the hairs of the abdomen with fresh 
pollen for the fertilisation of other flowers. 
Our rare solitary species of Tulip (Tulipa sylvestris) 
is coloured bright yellow. It is larger than the 
Fritillary, but of similar form, except that the 
segments of the flower have their tips curved back. 
They attract bees by their fragrance, but secrete no 
honey, fertilisation being effected by the bees as they 
collect or eat pollen. 
22 
