i°6 FA^^ILIA^i gasdex flowers. 



Countries^ and particularly on tlie skirts of field-paths near 

 Haai-lem. But Dodoens comes near to the adoption of 

 the familiar name when he describes the goat's-beard, or 

 seorzonera (also-called viper's grass)^ as " starre of Hieru- 

 salem ■" and " Joseph's floure." In Turner's " Herbal " 

 we fail to find any mention of the plant, and to search 

 in Clusins or Fuchsias would probably be waste of time. 

 But in Gerarde's " Herbal " six species of ornitliogahnn 

 are set forth, as the " star of Hungary/' " the lesser 

 Spanish star," the "star of Bethlehem," "the great 

 Arabicke star-lloure," &c. Gerai-de begins the story by 

 saying, "there be sundry sorts of wilde field Onions, 

 called ' Starres of Bethlehem,' differing in stature, taiste, 

 and smell, as shall be declared." Parkinson, both in the 

 " Theater " and the " Paradisus " describes the plant cor- 

 rectly, though briefly, regarding it as scarcely worthy 

 of notice, clearly showing that familiarity had bred a con- 

 tetnpt to which he, as a master botanist, should have been 

 superior, not in favour of this plant merely, but with 

 respect to even the humblest weed. 



It would thus apf)ear that the familiar name of this 

 plant is of comparatively modern origin. Its meaning 

 must be obvious to all, for the flower may be likened to a 

 star, more especially when the green stripes on the outside 

 are conspicuous ; and its association with Bethlehem as re- 

 presenting the star that guided the Magi to the manger 

 in which Jesus was born is not so extravagant as at first 

 may appear. This plant is the oniithogalitm, the bird's 

 milk-flower, and must have been compared with the milky 

 secretion with which pigeons nourish their young, and 

 thus it would be the dove's milk-flower. In common 

 with many liliaceous plants, the roots are edible, and 



