STAE OF 

 BETHLEHEM. 



/ On/ithoffahim timbcllatinii. 



HEN the great poet asked, 

 "What's in a name?'" he 

 was speaking for Juliet. 

 Had he spoken for him- 

 self, we might deem him 

 at the time of highest 

 inspiration less prophetic 

 than was his wont. In 

 truth there is much in a 

 name, even in the name 

 of "rose," that illustrates 

 the argument ; but much 

 more, perhaps, in the 

 name now before us. 

 When the modest star of 

 Bethlehem first acquired 

 its pretty name there is 

 none to tell, but it is an 

 old name, and the dearer perhaps for its antiquity. In 

 Lyte's "Dodoens" (1578) it is described as the " white felde 

 onyon," but with no allusion to the sacred story. The 

 author records finding it in plenty in the neighbourhood 

 of Malines, v^here we have ourselves gathered the flowers 

 on the roadside, as we have in many other places in the Low 



