Compositæ.

CALLIOPSIS TINCTORIA.

Class XIX.

Gen. Char.

DARK-FLOWERED CALLIOPSIS.

SYNGENESIA. Order III. POLYGAMIA, FRUSTRANEA.

Receptacle, pale, chaffy. Pappus, or Anthers, with two horns. Calyx, erect, many-leaved.

Spe. Char. Leaves, double compound.

THIS is a hardy perennial plant, a native of North America. It produces blossoms which are uncommonly beautiful, from July till October. The stem rises to the height of five or six feet, in good soil, and is therefore rather adapted to the shrubbery than the flowergarden; calyx many-parted and erect; petals five to eight, from a bright scarlet red to a pale yellow; the flowers are placed upon the end of long footstalks, and are large and numerous; the stalk or stem is considerably branched, each branch producing several flowers.

This plant, in its original or uncultivated state, exhibits a flower of a beautiful bright yellow color, with a deep blackish-purple, or blood-red eye; but cultivation shows that these colors are liable to vary, and has made us acquainted with a state of this plant, greatly increased in beauty and richness, so far as concerns the flower. In some specimens the whole of the ray is atro-sanguineous; in others here is a tawny, narrow margin, forming, as it were, a kind of limb around it. Mixed with the common yellow root in large patches, they add greatly to the elegant appearance and charms of a flowergarden. The species that produce petals of a pure yellow color, are used by the inhabitants to dye yellow. The stalks, limbs, and leaves are used to dye a purplish-blue, and are much valued on that

account.

Vol. iii.-173.

Ranunculacea.

HYDRASTIS CANADENSIS.

Class XIII.

POLYANDRIA. Order VI. POLYGYNIA.

GOLDEN SEAL

Gen. Char. Calyx, of three ovate sepals. Petals, wanting. Stamens and Ovaries, numerous. Fruit, baccate, numerous, collected into a head, each terminated by the style, one-celled, one or two-seeded.

Spe. Char. Seeds, somewhat egg-shaped, smooth. Root, bitter, rather pungent and tonic, yielding a beautiful yellow dye, whence its name, yellow-root.

THIS plant derived its name from hydor, water, in reference to the humid places where it grows.

This is a small perennial herb, with tuberous roots. It is a native of North America, growing in watery places along the Alleghany mountains, from Canada to Carolina; along the river Ohio, and on the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, in shady woods, in fertile soil, and among rocks. Root with fleshy tubercles, yellow on the inside; stem herbaceous, simple, one-flowered; lower leaves one or two, stalked, upper ones almost sessile, all of which are three to five-parted, with their lobes grossly toothed; flowers white or purplish, terminal, stalked; fruit fleshy, red, similar to that of Rubus; carpels ovate, acute, from eight to fourteen inches high.

The root is the part used for medicinal purposes; it is juicy when fresh, and loses two-thirds of its weight by drying. The taste is exceedingly bitter, rather pungent, and nauseous. The smell is strong and virose. It contains Amarine, extractive, several salts,

Vol. iii-174.