CLASS VI. ORDER I.] CONVALLARIA. 473 



ration of that mighty hand who created them, they, clothed in the 

 pure garments of their Maker, breathe forth the riches of His good- 

 ness, and forcibly, though silently, would lead us in His ways, for 



" Take but the humblest lily of the field, 

 And if our pride will to our reason yield, 

 It must by some comparison be shown 

 That on the regal seat great Darid's son, 

 Array'd in all his robes and types of power, 

 Shines with less glory than that simple flower." 



Prior. 



The Lily of the Valley, formerly called Lillium convallium, was 

 much esteemed as a valuable medicine in palpitation of the heart and 

 all nervous affections, being gently stimulating and aperient The 

 Sowers were used in the form of spirituous tincture, infusion, or 

 powder, as well as the root ; but they are now out of use. 



2. C. verticilla'ta, Linn. (Fig. 537.) Narrow-leaved Solomon's Seal. 

 Stem erect, angular ; leaves lanceolate, whorled ; flowers axillary, 

 cylindrical. 



English Botany, 128. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 155. Hooker, 

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



Roots with fleshy creeping underground stems. Stems erect, from 

 twelve to eighteen inches high, simple, angular, smooth, naked in the 

 lower part, with numerous whorls, of about four linear lanceolate 

 leaves, quite smooth, sessile, of a cheerful green, paler and somewhat 

 glaucous beneath, with a stout mid-rib and numerous slender pa- 

 rallel lateral veins. Flowers numerous from the axil of the leaves, 

 solitary, or several on branched slender footstalks, drooping. Perianth 

 tubular, cylindrical, white or yellowish, tipped with green, and six 

 ribbed, each rib terminating in the point of the segments, which are 

 tipped with a tuft of short hairs. Stamens on short filaments, inserted 

 into about the middle of the tube. Anthers yellow, linear, of two cells, 

 bursting laterally. Style short. Stigma obtuse. Fruit a round small 

 dark blue berry, with three cells, and each cell one or two seeded. 



Habitat. Woods and glens, very rare ; found only in Scotland. 

 Den of Rechip, four miles from Duukeld, Perthshire, Mr. A. Bruce ; 

 and woods at Blair, in Athol, Mr. James Macnab. 



Perennial ; flowering in June. 



This elegant species of Convallaria is found more frequent on the 

 Continent than with us, growing beautifully in the damp shady glens 

 of the Apennine woods of Italy, and mostly in flower in the month of 

 May. 



3. C. Polygona'tum, Linn. (Fig. 538.) Angular Solomon's Seal. 

 Stem angular ; leaves alternate, ovate oblong or elliptical, half em- 

 bracing the stem, obtusely pointed, smooth ; peduncles mostly single 

 flowered, axillary ; filaments smooth ; style straight. 



