THE LILY OF THE VALLEY. 



37 



others, having reference to the date of flowering. It is in France the 

 "Muguet de Mai"; in Germany the "Maiblume." Its specific name, 

 majalis or maialis, signifies "that which belongs to May," hence the 

 old astrological books place the plant under the dominion of Mercury, 

 for Maia, the daughter of Atlas, was the mother of Mercury or 

 Hermes. It is also called Convall Lily and Lily Constancy by the old 

 herbalists, and in some parts of the country its local name is " Ladder to 

 Heaven." Its spotless purity of colour and lowly humility were probably 

 the cause of the bestowal of the last name— a name that has no doubt 

 descended from medieval times. The old monkish herbalists often based 

 their nomenclature on associations of a religious character, and united 

 their plant names with the legends of the saints or the services of the 

 Church's calendar. 



" To the curious eye 

 A little monitor presents her page 

 Of choice instruction ; with her snowy bells, 

 The Lily of the Vale. She not affects 

 The public walk, nor gaze of noonday sun ; 

 She to no state or dignity aspires 

 But, silent and alone, puts on her suit, 

 And sheds her lasting perfume, but for which 

 We had not known there was a thing so sweet 

 Hid in the gloomy shade." — Hurdis. 



Again — 



" And their breath was mixed with fresh odours sent 

 From the turf like the voice of an instrument." 



As an ornamental plant few of our native species have a greater claim 

 to a place in the garden, and may I say in our hearts, for few others can 

 boast of so rich a fragrance or so delicate a beauty ; added to these charms 

 it is most easy of cultivation, requiring only to be placed in a shaded 

 corner. The gpneric name Convallaria is from the Latin word for valley, 

 and is bestowed in obvious reference to the sheltered woodland dells in 

 which the Convall Lily finds a congenial home. The root of the Lily of 

 the Valley is fibrous and perennial, extending a little below the surface of 

 the ground, and reaching to a considerable distance. The leaves grow in 

 pairs, their stalks sheathing one within the other. One of these leaves 

 is often larger than the other, as all know, and also that they are very 

 simple in form and deeply ribbed ; when forced the leaves are of a 

 much paler green and finer texture, and they take a deeper and more 

 sombre green out of doors as the season advances. The flower stalk 

 springs from the root and is about equal in length to the leaves. It bears 

 a loose raceme of drooping bell-shaped flowers of pure white ; hence in 

 Beaumont and Fletcher's sonnet on the spring we find them referred to 

 as " lilies whiter than the snow." In its wild state the blossoms are 

 rarely succeeded by the fruit, but it produces it readily under cultivation. 

 The fruit is rather a large berry, something in size between a fine black 

 currant and a small cherry, and of a brilliant orange red. Our friends in 

 the Antipodes are sighing for the lily fair, and have, I have recently been 

 told, tried more than once to get the plants from England ; but they will 

 not, as our friends north of the Tweed have it, " carry," and ere they 



