Baptisia tinctoria. 55 
Baptisia. The latter name is given here, because it more properly 
belongs to the genus it designates, than to either of the other two. 
This fine, luxuriant, bushy plant is a native of North America, and 
is almost universally known by the English name at the head of 
this chapter. 
The root is perennial, large, ligneous, irregularly shaped, of a 
bistre colour, inclining to black externally, and yellowish within. 
The radicles proceeding from the main root, which is occasionally 
ramified, are numerous, and of a lighter colour than the caudex. 
The stalks are two or three feet high, round, yellowish-green, 
smooth, and covered with an infinite number of black dots. They 
are much ramified, and become more yellow towards their extre- 
mities. The leaves are small, seldom larger than the thumb-nail, 
ternate, cuneate-cordate, nearly sessile, and of a deep indigo-bluish- 
green. The stipules are very minute and evanescent. The flowers 
are gamboge-yellow, becoming black, (as indeed the whole plant does 
upon drying,) after being plucked, or sometimes even while they re- 
main on the bush, after bloom. They are numerous, and situated in 
loose spikes on the extremities of the branches, and are supported 
by slender peduncles. The seed-vessel is an inflated, oblong pod, of 
the same bluish hue as the mature leaves, inclining to crow-black. 
The period of flowering is from the beginning of July to the middle 
and last of August. 
