Heuchera Americana, 464 
Tue genus Heuchera was named in honour of John Henry 
Heucher, professor of medicine in the University of Wittemberg, 
who was the author of a botanical and some medical publications.* 
According to Pursh there are five species natives of North Ame- 
rica; though Dr. Muhlenburg and Mr. Nuttall only enumerate three. 
H. Americana is the only species with which I am acquainted. It is 
indeed the only one growing in Pennsylvania and Jersey; and it is 
in this neighbourhood quite common. 
The root is horizontal, irregular, knotty, slightly compressed, of a 
yellowish colour, and an intensely astringent taste. There are no 
stems. The scapes are numerous from a single root, naked, terete, 
smooth under the ground, and just where they emerge from it, of 
a bright carmine colour. Higher up they become very hairy, and of 
a green colour, frequently attaining a height of two or three feet. 
The common height is about fourteen inches. The leaves are all 
radical, cordate, five to seven lobed, having the lobes rounded and 
toothed, and the teeth garnished with a small point. The flowers 
are small, borne on a long, loose, terminal and pyramidal panicle or 
thyrsus. Calix five-parted. Petals minute, rose-coloured, inserted 
* He published in 1711, « Index Plantarum Horti Medici Academie Wittemberg- 
ensis,” arranged according to the system of Rivinius. And in 1712, he published a 
treatise entitled, « De igne per ignem extinguendo, sive de prastantissimo Cam- 
phore usu in febribus acutis.” 
