492 NARTHECIUM. [CLASS VI. ORD1B I. 



but retains the odour, and on this account it is found useful as entering 

 into the composition of hair powder, tooth powder, &c.,and many other 

 of the perfumer's compounds. The leaves and stems of this plant have 

 been, as we are informed by Smith, used from time immemorial to 

 strew the floor of the Norwich Cathedral on the Mayor's day in June, 

 as well as some of the streets, and in the formation of various decora- 

 tions; and when trodden upon and bruised it gives out its odour, and 

 pleasantly perfumes the buildings and streets ; but latterly from the 

 plant becoming less abundant, it is mixed with the leaves of the Iris 

 Pseu d'acorus, p. 43, or the larger kinds of Carex. It is the common 

 practice in Italy, and other parts of the Continent, to strew the floors of 

 the Churches and the principal streets leading to them with the branches 

 of Myrtle, (Myrtus communis), and other plants, on the morning of 

 the celebration of any festa, and the trampling upon them scents the 

 air with their pleasant aroma, in the same way as that of the Sweet Flag. 



GENUS XIX. NARTHE'CIUM. HUDS. Bog Asphodel. 

 Nat. Ord. JCN'CE.E. Juss. 



GEN. CHAR. Perianth of six pieces, gluraaceous. Stamens six, in- 

 serted into the base of the segments of the perianth. Filaments 

 persistent, woolly. Style short. Stigmas angular. Ovary pyra- 

 midal. Fruit a three celled, three valved capsule. Seeds nume- 

 rous, with a filiform appendage at the base and apex. Named 

 from vafOw?, a rod. 



1. N. ossi'fragum, Huds. (Fig. 559 ) Bog Asphodel. Leaves radical, 

 linear, uniform ; pedicle with a bractea at the base, and another above 

 its middle ; stamens shorter than the perianth, and the capsule longer. 

 English Botany, t. 535. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 151. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 163. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 277. Anthericum 

 ossifragum, Linn. Abama ossifraga, De Cand, Fl. Fran. 



Root with creeping underground stems, and numerous long branched 

 fibres. Stem ascending from four to eight inches high, roundish, 

 smooth, finely striated, clothed especially in the lower part with alter- 

 nate striated somewhat keeled sheath-like scales, abortive leaves, much 

 smaller, and more distant in the upper part of the stem. Leaves in 

 radical tufts, about half as long as the stem, two ranked, linear, sword- 

 shaped, striated, with nearly equi-distant slender ribs, a fine dark green, 

 smooth, Inflorescence a terminal racemose spike, of numerous yellow 

 flowers, each on a pedicle, arising alternately from the base of a linear 

 ' bractea about its own length, and from above the middle of the pedicle 

 is another smaller one. Perianth of six linear equal spreading pieces, 

 of a bright yellow, thickened at the back, and of a greenish colour, 

 persistent. Stamens shorter than the perianth, with stout filaments, 



