pPaat Tsorc, T^egcT^b/, on 3. Tsijric/'. 553 



had forgotten his staff with the Sprin{2^wort in it, which he had laid 

 against the wall when he stepped in ; so that just as he was on the 

 point of stepping out of the opening, the rock suddenly slammed 

 together, and cut him in two. In this version of the German 

 legend, the Luckflower is identified with the Springwort. 



SPURGE LAUREL.— The Spurge Laurel, called in Den- 

 mark Ty-vcd, is sacred to Tyr, the god of war. This plant is the 

 badge of the Scottish Clan Graham. 



SQUILL. — The Scilla mayitima, or Sea Onion, was of old con- 

 secrated in Egypt to the godTyphon. The mummies of Egyptian 

 women often hold the Squill in one hand, probably as an emblem 

 of generation. The Egyptians planted the Squill in groves, and 

 hung it in their houses to preserve them from evil spirits. In 

 Arcadia, at the festival of the god Pan, the statue of the deity was 

 decorated with Squills. 



STAR OF BETHLEHEM.— The Ornithogalum umhellatum 

 is called the Star of Bethlehem on account of its white stellate 

 flowers resembling the picTtures of the star that indicated the birth 

 of the Saviour of mankind. As the plant is abundant in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Samaria, it was thought by Linnaeus and also by 

 several biblical commentators to be the "dove's dung" mentioned 

 as the food of the famished inhabitants of that city during the siege 

 recorded in the Book of Kings. The Star of Bethlehem is horo- 

 logical — it never unfolds its petals before eleven o'clock, and hence 

 has acquired the nickname of the Eleven o'Clock Lady. 



STOCK. — The Stock, or Stock-Gilliflower (Mathiola), was one 

 of the earliest inmates of English gardens, where it was known as 

 the Gilliflower, a word corrupted from the French name of the 

 flower, Girojice. 



" The white and purple Gillyflowers, that stay 

 In blossom— lingering summer half away." 



The principal kinds grown in gardens are the Queen's Stock-Gilli- 

 flower, of which the Brompton Stock and the White Stock are 

 varieties, and the annual, or Ten-weeks' Stock (M. annua). The 

 old English name of Gilliflower was familiarly given to several 

 other plants dear to early English gardeners : thus we find it 

 applied to the Carnation, the Pink, the Rocket, the Wall-flower, 

 the Ragged Robin, and some others. Parkinson (who is the first 

 writer to mention the double Stock) remarks of the flower: " We 

 call it in English generally Stock-Gilloflower (or as others do, 

 Stock Gillover), to put a difference between them and the Gillo- 

 flowers and Carnations, which are quite of another kindred." The 

 word Gilliflower afterwards became corrupted to July-flower, and 



was so written by the poet Drayton. Baron Cuvier had a great 



partiality for the double Stock : it had been the favourite flower of 

 his mother, and the great naturalist, on that account, always prized 



