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Star of Bethlehem
Ornithogalum umbellatum.
WHEN the great poet asked, "What's in a name?" he was speaking for Juliet. Had he spoken for himself, we might deem him at the time of highest inspiration less prophetic than was his wont. In truth there is much in a name, even in the name of "rose," that illustrates the argument; but much more, perhaps, in the name now before us. When the modest star of Bethlehem first acquired its pretty name there is none to tell, but it is an old name, and the dearer perhaps for its antiquity. In Lyte's "Dodoens" (1578) it is described as the "white felde onyon," but with no allusion to the sacred story. The author records finding it in plenty in the neighbourhood of Malines, where we have ourselves gathered the flowers on the roadside, as we have in many other places in the Low Countries, and particularly on the skirts of field-paths near Haarlem. But Dodoens comes near to the adoption of the familiar name when he describes the goat's-beard, or scorzonera (also-called viper's grass), as "starre of Hierusalem" and "Joseph's floure." In Turner's "Herbal" we fail to find any mention of the plant, and to search in Clusius or Fuchsias would probably be waste of time. But in Gerarde's "Herbal" six species of ornithogalum are set forth, as the "star of Hungary," "the lesser Spanish star," the "star of Bethlehem," "the great Arabicke star-floure," &c. Gerarde begins the story by saying, "there be sundry sorts of wilde field Onions, called `Starres of Bethlehem,' differing in stature, taste, and smell, as shall be declared." Parkinson, both in the "Theater" and the "Paradisus" describes the plant correctly, though briefly, regarding it as scarcely worthy of notice, clearly showing that familiarity had bred a contempt to which he, as a master botanist, should have been superior, not in favour of this plant merely, but with respect to even the humblest weed.
It would thus appear that the familiar name of this plant is of comparatively modern origin. Its meaning must be obvious to all, for the flower may be likened to a star, more especially when the green stripes on the outside are conspicuous; and its association with Bethlehem as representing the star that guided the Magi to the manger in which Jesus was born is not so extravagant as at first may appear. This plant is the ornithogalum, the bird's milk-flower, and must have been compared with the milky secretion with which pigeons nourish their young, and thus it would be the dove's milk-flower. In common with many liliaceous plants, the roots are edible, and were in ancient times eaten, both raw and cooked, as Dioscorides testifieth. A very trivial blunder in copying or translating might convert dove's milk into dove's dung, and certain it is that Linnaeus and later writers have regarded this plant as the dove's dung, mentioned in the Second Book of Kings vi.25: "And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab (about half a pint) of dove's dung for five pieces of silver." But we are not bound to suppose an error anywhere in the text, because Dr. Royle, and before him Bochart, declare that "pigeon's dung" is a name in common use amongst the Arabs for vegetable substances. In Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible" the Rev. William Drake says, "there seems good reason for taking this as a literal statement," but adds that "the Arabs call the herb Kali sparrow's dung." Mr. Grindon, in his admirable work on "Scripture Botany," regards the passage as referring to the chickpea, which is the meanest kind of pulse. Let us return to the more agreeable subject of the place the plant has acquired by its familiar name in the midst of previous associations. It is the star of Bethlehem that shines amid the green herbage of the spring, and pleasantly promises that the summer is coming, just as the other heavenly star gave promise that the Sun of Righteousness would arise with healing in His wings. How fitting a theme for such a poet as Henry Kirke White, whose sympathies were ever tenderest towards holy things!
The species of ornithogalum are far too numerous for any moderate amateur to be justified in inspecting them. The best of those that may with safety be planted out in the shady border are O. umbellatum, O. pyrenaicum, O. nutans, and O. pyramidalis. The first will thrive under the deepest shade of trees, but the others like a little sunshine. The second in the list is the plant known as "Bath asparagus," the flower-stems being sometimes cooked and served as a table vegetable in the ancient and beautiful city of Bath.