CO NV ALLARIA majalis.'
L ily o f the Valley.
HEXANDRIA Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Cor. in 6 fegments. Cal. none. Style
longer than the ftamina. Stigma 3-fided. Berry
fuperior, 3-celled, fpotted before it is ripe.
Spec. Char. Stalk naked, femicylindrical. Flowers
fpiked, drooping, on partial ftalks.
Syn. Convallaria majalis. -Linn. Sp. P i. 4 5 1 . Sm.
F I. B rit. 370. Hudf. 146. With. 3 4 1 . Hull. 72.
Relh. 138 . Sihth. 1 1 1 . Ahhot. 76. t. 1 . Curt.
Bond. fa fc . 5. t. 24.
Lilium convallium. R aii Syn. 16 4.
' 1 'H IS elegant and delightfully fragrant plant, fo generally
cultivated in flower-gardens, is fometimes to be met with in
fhady mountainous fpots, or on heathy ground, in feveral
parts of England, as about Hampftead and Highgate, and in
a holly wood between Norwich and Thorpe, where it is truly
wild. Our fpecimens were obligingly communicated by
S. Hailftone and W. Hurftler, efqrs. from rocky woods at Heb-
den bridge near Halifax.
Roots perennial, matted and creeping. Leaves two, radical, on
long ftalks, upright, elliptical, ribbed, entire; the ftalks invefted
with fcales, from among which alfo arifes the folitary naked
flower-ftalk, fliorter than the leaves, flat on one fide, round on
the other, bearing a Ample fpike of drooping, white, bell-fliaped,
very odoriferous flowers, each on its own curved round little
ftalk, having a lanceolate brattea where it fprings from the
principal one. Stamina awl-fhaped, fhort. Style club-fhaped,
triangular upwards. Berry globular, fcarlet when ripe.
The fpots of the unripe fruit make a principal but unfatis-
faftory part of the generic character of Convallaria in Linnaeus.
The undivided ftigma chiefly diftinguilhes it from
Apparagus.