492 



LILIACE.E 



Scilla ; but the flowers, which are in a bracteate, sometimes 

 corymbose, raceme, are white or yellow, but never blue; the 

 perianth, which consists of 6 free, spreading segments, has a 

 nectariferous gland at the base of each, and is persistent ; and the 

 anthers are versatile. (Name from the Greek ornithos, bird's, gala, 



milk.) 



I.* 0. nutans (Drooping Star 

 of Bethlehem). — Bulb large ; 

 leaves a foot or more in length, 

 glaucous ; flowers few, large, 

 white, greenish outside, in a 

 loose, drooping raceme with 

 long, slender bracts; filaments 

 3-fid. — Naturalised in fields ; 

 rare. — Fl. April, May. Biennial. 

 2.* 0. umbelldtum (Common 

 Star of Bethlehem). — Bulb 

 smaller ; leaves shorter, green, 

 with a white stripe ; flowers 

 6— 10, large, erect, white, with 

 a broad green band externally, 

 in a long-stalked, corymbose 

 raceme. — In the neighbourhood 

 of houses, not indigenous ; fre- 

 quent. — Fl. April, May. Peren- 

 nial. 



3. 0. pyrendicum (Spiked 

 Star of Bethlehem). — Bulb 

 large ; leaves long, narrow, 

 glaucous, withering very early 

 in the season ; flowers numerous, 

 in a long, erect raceme, with a 

 stout, leafless peduncle about 

 2 feet high ; bracts lanceolate- 

 acuminate ; perianth - leaves 

 green, with white margins in- 

 side. Woods in the south ; 

 rare, but very abundant near Bath, where the young shoots when in 

 bud are sold as " French Asparagus." — Fl. June, July. Perennial. 



* 1 2. Lf lium (Lily). — Herbaceous plants with scaly bulbs, cauline 

 leaves, and large flowers with a deciduous perianth of 6 spreading, 

 or reflexed, free segments, with a nectary; anthers versatile. 

 (Name, the Classical name of some such plants.) 



ornith6galum pyrenAicum 

 (Spiked Star of Bethlehem). 



