194 ENGLISH EOTANT. 



I am indebted to Mr. T. B. Flower and the Hon. J. L. Warren for 

 recent specimens of this plant. 



Yelloio Star of Bethlehem. 



Frcncli, Gageo grisdtro. German, Gelhur Goldstem. 



GENUS X//.-ORNITHOGALUM. Linn. 



Perianth coloured, white (rarely yellow), cupsliaped- or widely 

 funnelshajjed-rotate ; perianth leaves 6, free, subpersistent and mar- 

 cescent, more or less spreading, -without a nectariferous pore at the 

 base ; the outer leaves generally herbaceous on the back. Stamens 6, 

 adliering to the base of the perianth leaves ; anthers affixed by their 

 back to the filaments, extrorse. Style trigonous; stigma minute, tri- 

 gonous. Capsule ovoid or obscurely trigonous, loculicidally 3-valved. 

 Seeds few or several, subglobose or angulated; testa hard, black or 

 fuscous, rugose when dry. 



Herbs with tunicated bulbs and linear or linear-lorate radical leaves 

 with a white midrib, or rather broad channelled or flat concolorous 

 leaves. Flowers rather large, opening in the forenoon and only in 

 fine weather, on a leafless scape, in a corymb or raceme. 



The name of this genus comes from the Greek words opvie, a bird, and yaXa, milk, 

 or pigeon's milk, for which " gowks " are despatched on the Feast of All Fools, the 

 1st of April. The same word is used by Dioscorides for the Star of Bethlehem 

 plant. 



SPECIES I.-ORNITHOGALUM NUTANS. Unn. 



Plate MDXXIII. 



Bekli. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCLXXIII. 



BUM, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsico. No. 2917. 



Myogalum nutans. Link. Kunth, Enum. PI. Vol. IV. p. 348. Pari Fl. Ital. Vol. II. 



p. 450. 

 Albucea nutans, Beich. Fl. Germ. Excurs. p. 110 ; and Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv, Vol. X. 



p. 16. 



Bulb subsolitary, producing veiy few ofl'sets, so that the plant does 

 not grow in large clumps. Leaves not decayed at the time of flowering, 

 strapshaped-linear, narrowed from beyond the middle to the apex, 

 widely channelled above, liglit glaucous green with a rather broad 

 white central stripe, glabrous. Flowers few, slightly drooping, in a 

 lax secund raceme ; pedicels shorter than the flowers, slightly recurved, 

 becoming more so in fi-uit. Bracts longer than the pedicels. Perianth 

 leaves greenish-white, broadly green on the back, especially the three 

 outer ones. Filaments petaloid, connivent, strapshaped-oblong, 3- 

 cuspidate at the apex, the lateral cusps as long as the anther. 



