62 RHEXIA VIRGINICA. MEADOW-BEAUTY. 



We may perhaps be able to find some clue to the derivation 

 of the name, by going back to antiquity. Pliny mentions a 

 plant called Rhcxia, and says that its name is simply a synonym 

 for Oiioc/ulus, literally " the ass's lip." But this last is now 

 identified with the " Alkanah," or Anchusa tinctoria, the roots 

 of which are used as a vulnerary, and which, according to Lin- 

 naeus, is liable to be confounded in pharmacy with the " Red 

 Root," Onosma echoides, of Greece ; Onosma literally meaning 

 " that which asses are fond of," or " the asses' plant." Now, 

 as Rhexia has a root which is very like the " Red Root " of 

 the ancients, it is barely possible that the employment of the 

 Plinian name was suggested by this similarity. We must con- 

 fess, however, that, although we have thus succeeded in carrying 

 the name back eighteen hundred years, we have done nothing 

 whatever to explain its meaning. We may therefore well say 

 with Dr. Gray, that Rhexia has been " applied to this genus 

 without obvious reason." 



It is a curious fact that the root of this plant seems to be 

 almost unknown to botanists. Barton says positively it is 

 fibrous, while Fig. i on our plate shows it to be in reality tuber- 

 ous. This fact has, however, been commented on by others 

 before us, as shown by a communication in the " American 

 NaturaUst" for 1873, in which a botanical correspondent 

 writes : " This species produces fusiform tubers, and of course 

 grows from them the following year. But Gray's ' Manual,' 

 Chapman's ' Flora,' and Bentham and Hooker's ' Genera Plan- 

 tarum ' make no mention of it, and hence I infer it is not 

 generally known." We are as yet unable positively to describe 

 the way in which these tubers are formed. Most tubers are 

 formed in a horizontal direction, but in some plants, as for 

 instance in the Dioscorea Batatas, the Chinese yam, a descend- 

 ing root thickens, and forms a tuber, and this appeared to be the 

 case in the specimen of Rhexia Virginica which was procured 

 for our artist. It may, however, have been accidental. 



Lesquereux says our plant is very abundant in moist places 



