﻿Near Keswick: Mr. Hutton. — Devon ; In orchards at Ilsington, apparently 

 wild : FI. Devon. — Gloucestersh. On the top of a hill 3 miles on this side of 

 Bristol: Meiihett. Billon meadows, opposite the church : Rev. H. T. Eli.i- 

 combe. — Middlesex ; In plenty on the point of lar.d adjoining Teddington Lock, 

 and by the river side in that neighbourhood : E. K. in Loud. M. N. H. v. i. p. 

 83. — Norfolk ; At Babcrgh near Norwich : Mr. Wagstaffe. Old Buckenham : 

 Mr. Turner. — Somersetsh. In a field near the Caisson at Combehay: Dr. 

 Davis. — Suffolk ; At Little Stonham ; Mrs. Cobhold. — Surrey ; In the closes 

 about Streatham : Dr. Marten. In a piece of waste pasture near the Thames, 

 West of the Red House ; and in meadows W. of Wandsworth ; I have seen it 

 also plentiful in a meadow near Mortlake : Mr. W. Pamplin, jun. In a mea- 

 dow near Wimbledon: W. W. Saunders, Esq. in Curt. Entom. — Sussex ; At 

 Lewes: W. Borrer, Esq. — Warwicksh. Meadows near the Avon, Warwick: 

 Rev. W. T. Bree, in Loud. Mag. N. H. v. iii. p. 164. Near the pond in God- 

 frey’s Lammas, Warwick: Mr. G. W. Perry. — Wilts; Near Great Bedwyn: 

 W. Bartlett, Esq. — Yorksh. By Ledstone Hall near Leeds: Dr. Marten. 

 Meadows near Ripon ; on the foot road to a pasture, called Red Bank, by Ilipon : 

 Mr. Brunton. In a field near Knaresborough : Mr. Robson. Near Rother- 

 ham : Mr. L. Langi.ee, in Loud. M. N. H. v. ii. p. 269. — WALES. Anglesey ; 

 In a wood near Maes y Porlh: Rev. H. Davis. — Flint sh. Meadows adjoiniug 

 Basingwerk Abbey : D. Turner, Esq. — Pembrokesh. Wild in a w ood close to 

 Stackpole Couit House : Mr. Milne. — SCO TLAND. Near Glasgow: Stark. 



Perennial. — Flowers from April to June. 



Bulb egg-shaped, tunicated, white, increasing plentifully by off- 

 sets. Leaves several, radical, strap-shaped, convex and striated on 

 the outside, channelled within, with a white silvery rib, smooth, 

 bluntish, and soon withering at the tip. Scape ( stalk J from the 

 centre of the bulb, upright, round, polished, from 8 to 10 inches 

 high, terminating in a corymb of from 4 to 9 upright flowers, all 

 nearly on a level at top, the lowermost peduncles being gradually 

 longest. Bracleas solitary, at the base of each peduncle (partial 

 stalk), large, membranous, spear-shaped, pointed, permanent, but 

 soon withering and turning brown. Corolla white, with a broad 

 green line along the under side of each petal. Filaments (figs. 3 

 & 4.) spear-shaped, flat, fleshy, every other broader. This spe- 

 cies, as Mr. Woodward observes, is very improperly called urn-, 

 bellatum, the inflorescence being evidently corymbose. 



This plant, though found apparently wild in so many parts of England, is 

 supposed not to have been originally a British native. It is very common in 

 gardens, where it is deserving a place in the flower borders, which it will en- 

 liveu with its brilliant white blossoms, in sunny * days, from the latter end 

 of April to the beginning of June. It is a native of the southern parts of 

 Europe, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Carniola, Italy, and the 

 Levant; in orchards, pastures, vineyards, and thickets. 



Linnaius says, (Mant. p. 364, and Prelectiones, p.287.) that the roots of this 

 plant are the Dove’s dung, which was sold so dear during the siege of Samaria, 

 (II Book of Kings, ch. vi. v. 25.) ; “ which interpretation appears highly pro- 

 bable from the obvious identity of the name ornithogalum ( Bird’s -milk J, and 

 which was applied to this plant by many of the antient writers, as Dioscoridfs, 

 Pliny, &c., and from the circumstance that they are, when boiled, eaten at the 

 present day by the poorer inhabitants of Palestine, where it grows in abundance ; 

 whence its English name Star of Bethlehem.” f 



* Pale as a pensive cloister’d nun 



The Bethlem star her face unveils, 



When o’er the mountain peers the sun, 



But shades it from the vesper gales. — Mrs. C. Smith. 



T See “ A Catalogue of the rarer species of Indigenous Plants, which have 

 been observed growing in the vicinity of Battersea and Clapham, systematically 

 arranged ; with a reference to the figures in ‘ English Botany.’ By \\ . Pamp- 

 lin, jun. Lavender Hill Nursery. Clapham : printed by II. N. Batten. 1827.” 



