AMARYLLIS ATAMASCO. 



ATAMASCO LILY. 



NATURAL ORDER, AMARVLLIDACE/E. 



Amaryllis Atamasco, Linna:us. — Scape terete, somewhat lateral, one-flowered ; leaves linear, 

 concave, fleshy; spathe one-leaved, two-cleft ; perianth short-stalked, bell-shaped, white 

 tinged with purple ; style longer than the stamens ; seeds angled ; scape six to twelve 

 inches high, commonly shorter than the glossy leaves ; flower two to three inches long. 

 (Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States. See Gray's Manual of t tie Botany of 

 the Northern United States, and also Wood's Class-Book of Botany under Zephyrantlius 

 Atamaseo.) 



N spite of its English common name, the beautiful plant 

 represented on our plate has nothing whatever to do 

 with the Lily family, as this family is now arranged. The name 

 has simply adhered to it because the old botanists erroneously 

 classed it with LiUiini, together with so many other plants 

 which have now been removed to other genera. " Atamasco," 

 we arc told by Morrison, an early writer, was the name given 

 to our plant by tlve inhabitants of Carolina, from whence it was 

 first sent to England. The word is in all probability of Indian 

 oriein, but we have no knowledge of its precise meaning. 

 Various other names are mentioned besides by other writers. 

 Thus Elliott tells us, in his " Botany of South Carolina," that 

 the plant is called " Stagger-Grass," from a belief widely preva- 

 lent that a disease in calves, called the " staggers," is produced 

 by the animals' feeding on it; and Dr. Baldwin, in a letter to Dr. 

 Muhlenberg, published in Darlington's " Memoirs of Baldwin," 

 writes as follows: "March i6, 1S12, Amaryllis Atamasco in 

 flower. It is the Swamp Lily of the Georgians, and is called 



