170 TRE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
medicine the squill. Another species of this flower, the 
large star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum majus), was for- 
merly called the lily of Alexandria, and is often termed 
eleven-o’clock-lady, because it opens at this hour. Its 
roots are nutritious, and are supposed by Linnaeus to have 
been the dove’s dung mentioned in Scripture as the food 
of the famished Jews when Jerusalem was surrounded by 
the proud armies of Sennacherib. The musk or starch 
hyacinth is a well-known plant of the order. It grows 
wild in many parts of England; and its dark purple bells 
have a strong odour of starch. 
