THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 127 



to Apollo and to Aesculapius the God of Medicine, that they 

 be not offended at the digging of the root and bearing it awav 

 to a human dwelling. 



Our Christmas Rose has a lovely cousin, known as the 

 Lenten or Easter Flower. The leaves of this plaat are not 

 evergreen, nor tough and leathery, like those of the Christmas 

 Rose, for they are not plants of the winter and it is not the 

 Nativity that they celebrate. At Easter time, they break their 

 dark tombs in the earth and come up to join the great Ressur- 

 rection Allelujah ! The flowers of this variety are not snow 

 white, like those of the Christmas Rose. Several are borne 

 upon each pedicle and they are light green, the pale delicate 

 shade of a katydid's wing. 



THE RAREST AMERICAN PLANT 



By W11.LARD N. Clute. 



A numljer of American plants are so rare that they occur at 

 ^ only a few scattered stations or, in some cases, at onlv one, 

 but when there is only a single station known for a plant in 

 the whole world and a lone individual represents the species 

 even here, it is evident that its claim to being the rarest 

 American plant cannot be easily refuted. 



About the year 1878 Dr. E. J. Hill of Chicago, collecting 

 along the Kankakee river in Eastern Illinois, found a species 

 of globe mallow, near the city of Kankakee, which appeared to 

 be unique. It has since been known as Sphaeralcea acerifolia. 

 Later a species so closely resembling it as to be regarded as 

 identical with it has been found to occupy a wedge-shaped 

 area from Dakota to Nevada and British Columbia, but Dr. 



