226 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



" From a fibre bearing an extensively creeping root somewhat 

 like that of lolium there arise in the month of April green sprouts 

 not so unlike those of asparagus, which turn out to be nothing else 

 than a pair of green leaves closely wrapped together, and supported 

 on a common footstalk. Now when these two begin to separate 

 from each other they assume the appearance of a pair of leaves of 

 the white lily; at the same time there is seen to arise as from be- 

 tween them a triangular peduncle ornamented by five or six little 

 globes placed one after another, of about the size of a chick pea, 

 which in the latter part of April expand to little cymbal-shaped 

 flowers of a snowy whiteness, round, hollow, serrated around the 

 lower part (i.e., that part looking toward the ground), in the 

 middle within marked with a purple spot, the whole flower most 

 fragrant, but of a bitter taste. After the falling away of these they 

 are succeeded, at the end of June, by a coral-red fruit not unlike 

 that of the asparagus. " l 



The production of this fine word picture had been prompted by 

 something more than mere admiration for a beautiful plant which, 

 although unknown to descriptive botany, has risen to high repute 

 in medicine, at least in Germany. A spirit of friendly rivalry 

 seems to have added zest to those morphologic investigations from 

 which the description followed. Brunfels, who had been first to 

 figure the plant, had found no description of it anywhere, and 

 left it without any. Concerning the medical authorities of the 

 time, whose chapters he had ransacked in search of some account 

 of it, he says he has found them "as silent as fishes." We learn 

 from Tragus that Brunfels afterwards changed his mind in so far 

 as to doubt whether this might not be the Hemerocallis of Dioscori- 

 des 3 ; and Tragus the more carefully studies lily of the valley from 

 earliest spring to the end of the season, and describes it every part 

 from root to fruit, that he may successfully controvert the view of 

 that " man of pious memory, Otto Brunfels. " The argument, given 

 at full length, occupies a separate paragraph appended to the 

 description. 



On his frequent excursions to the woods and other wild lands, 

 Tragus nad discovered many growths hitherto unknown; and while 

 never until late in life having thought of availing himself of the en- 

 graver's art, he published a long list of such by verbal delineation 

 only; and so well that plates, when at last in a new edition he 



1 Stirp. Comm., p. 572. 



Brunfels, Herb. Viv. Icon., vol. i, p. 212. 



' Stirp. Comm., p. 573. 



