LILIACE^. 197 



SPECIES III— ORNITHOGALUM PYRENAICUM. Linn. 

 Plate MDXXV. 

 Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. CCCCXXI. Fig. 1028. 



Bulb subsolitaiy, producing very few offsets, so that the plant does 

 not grow in large clumps. Leaves nearly or quite decayed by the 

 time the flowers expand, strapshaped-linear, narrowed from before the 

 middle to the apex, widely channelled above, glaucous, without any 

 wliite central stripe, glabrous. Flowers very numerous, in a rather 

 dense elongate regular raceme. Pedicels longer than the flowers, spread- 

 ing in flower, erect in fruit. Bracts ultimately a little shorter than the 

 pedicels. Perianth leaves green, with greenish-white edges, green on 

 the back, especially the three outer leaves. Filaments strapshaped, 

 contracted into fiUform a little above the middle, entire at the apex. 



In woods and bushy places. Very local, but often abundant where 

 it does occur. Recorded from the counties of Somerset, Wilts, Sussex, 

 Beds, and Gloucester, and to have been formerly found in Cambridge- 

 shire. Surrey, Middlesex, and Salop have been reported as pro- 

 ducing it, but only on doubtful authority. 



England. Perennial. Summer. 



Bulb flowering when about the size of a walnut, longer and more 

 tapering upwards than in either of the other species, and usually very 

 deeply buried. Leaves 1 to 2 feet long, flaccid, appearing towards the 

 close of winter, and commonly quite decayed by the time the flowers 

 expand. Scape 2 to 3 feet high, stout, terminated by a raceme, which 

 is densely crowded in bud, but becomes more lax in flower, and still 

 more so in fruit. Perianth leaves about | inch long, pale green, with 

 white edges on the inside, deeper green on the outside. Anthers 

 yellow. Fruit about the size of a cherry-stone, ovoid, with (3 furrows. 

 Seeds about the size of No. 6 shot, black, nearly smooth when fresh, 

 rugose when dry. 



Some authors divide 0. pyrenaicum into two species, namely, 0. 

 pyrenaicum and 0. sulphureum. Whether these are distinct or no, 

 1 have not means of deciding; but the Bath plant is the 0. pyre- 

 naicum of Boreau. By the kindness of M. Lenormand, I received 

 fi-om Professor Boreau living roots of his 0. pyrenaicum and 0. sul- 

 phureum; the former throve and flowered in London, and was pre- 

 cisely similar to the Bath plant sent me aUve by Mr. T. B. Flower. 

 0. sulphureum never flowered, and died after the second year ; it had 

 the leaves much less glaucous than the other. 



Spiked Star of Bethlehem. 



French, Omithogale des Pyrenees. 

 This plant is a native of Greece, and is referred to by Tbeophrastus in his Hist. PI. 



