56 TALINUM TERETIFOLIUM. — TERETE TALINUM. 



" Why art thou doomed, sweet flower ? 



Is it because thy beauty is too bright. 

 Thou hast but one short hour 



To spread thy fair leaves to the enamored Hght? 

 'Tis thus the loved and loveliest first decay, 

 But their remembrance may not pass away." 



The derivation of the generic appellation Talinum, we are in- 

 formed by Dr. Gray, is obscure. Pfeiffer, a German botanist, 

 tells us, however, that it is the vernacular name of the plant 

 among the Senegalese, and that it was adopted by Adanson as 

 the botanical name. 



Talinum teretifolmm is found on rocks in North Carolina, 

 or, according to Prof. Wood, even as far south as Georgia, and 

 northward to Pennsylvania. Dr. Gray gives as one of its west- 

 ern locations the Falls of St. Croix River, Wisconsin ; and Mr. 

 Herbert E. Copeland found it in sand in the dells of the Wis- 

 consin. The writer also collected it on the sandy plains at 

 the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in Colorado. Prof. Aughey 

 includes it in the flora of Nebraska; but in Kansas, according 

 to Prof. Snow, it is replaced by its close ally, T. parvijiorum. 

 West of the Rocky Mountains it has not been found. 



Mr. Aubrey H. Smith, in the " Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," says that the plant does 

 much better under cultivation than in its wild state, and the 

 experience of the writer fully confirms this statement. 



The plant is described in botanical works as having but five 

 petals ; the fact is rarely noted in these works that the first 

 flowers of many cymose plants have a greater number of parts 

 than those which follow. Our artist has faithfully represented 

 the number six in the petals of the opening flowers. 



