7 [ 13° 1
O R N I T H O G A L U M umbellatum.
Common Star o f Bethlehem.
H E X A N D R I A Monogynia.
G en. Char. Cor. of fix petals, eredt, permanent, from
about the midway fpreading. Filaments alternately
broader at the bafe.
Spec. Char. Flowers in a corymbus. Flower-ftalks
riling above the top of the main ftalk. Filaments
tapering, entire.
Syn. Ornithogalum umbellatum. Linn. Sp. P I. 4 4 1 .
Hudf. F I. An. 14 3 . With. Bot. A rr. 34 7 .
O. vulgare et verius, majus et minus. R ail Syn. 3 7 2 .
T H I S is fuppofed not to have been originally a Britifh native,
though now found in a ftate of nature in fome parts of
Norfolk. Our fpecimen was obligingly communicated from
Babergh, near Norwich, by Mr. WagftafF.
The root is a white roundifh bulb. Leaves feveral, linear,
bluntifh, and foon withering at the tip, concave on the upper
fide, with a white rib. Stalk round, fmooth, 8 or 10 inches .
high, terminating in an ereft corymbus (for it is by no means
an umbel, and therefore Linnseus would have done well to have
changed the old name) of 6 to 8 or 10 flowers, which appear
in Mav. Bractea: lanceolate, acute, membranous, and fading,
about half as long as the flower-ftalks. Petals of a pure enamelled
white, with a green line along their backs, much fpread-
ing, and permanent. Stamina half their length, broad and
flat, tapering to a fharp point, not emarginate, but entire, as
Haflelquift, Mygind, and Linnseus himfelf obferved; we have
therefore, from his own MS. obfervations, correfted the fpeci-
fic character. Germen turbinated, with fix notches, and a
fhort, ereft, fimple ftyle. . . , , , .
The roots are eatable when boiled, and much ufed as food m
the Levant. Linnseus fays, Mant. 364, they are the doves
dung which was fold fo dear during the fiege of Samaria (ad
Book of Kings, ch. 6, § 25); though Olaus Celfius (Hierobot.
■not. 2ip. 30) and many other critics take that term in its literal
fenfe. If Linnseus is right, we obtain a fort of clue to the
derivation of Ornithogalum ( Bird.’s-milk) which has puzzled
all etymologifts. May not that denomination apply to the
white fluid which always accompanies the dung of birds, and
is their urine ? One may almoft perceive a fimilar combination
of colours in the green and white of this flower, which accords
precifely in that refpe<ft with the defcnption Diofcondes gives of
his Ornithogalum *.
* Since the above was written we have had the fatisfaction of findmg Linnseus
gives Ae fame explanation in his Leftures on the Natural Orders of Plants, pub-
lifhed by Profeffor Gifeke, Hamburg, 1792, p. « 7 -