LARGE-FIOWERED ST. JOHN'S-WORT. 105 



LARGE-FLOWERED ST. JOHNS-WORT. 



Hypericum Calycinum, 



Natural Order Rotacece. Hyperica, Juss. A Genus^ 

 of the Polyadelphia Polyandria Class. 



Hypericum all bloom. 



CowrER. 



I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted. 



Shakspeare. 



We possess no fewer than tliirty-nine species and 

 several varieties of the Hypericum, which modern 

 bigotry has named St. John**s-Wort, and which 

 ancient superstition called Fiiga DcBmonum, be- 

 lieving that this plant would defend persons from 

 phantoms and spectres, and drive away devils. Foi 

 the same reason others called it Sol Terrestrisy. 

 Terrestrial Sun, because they say that all the 

 spirits of darkness vanish at the approach of the 

 sun. We are disposed to adopt the latter name 

 to distinguish this flower from its thirty-eight rela- 

 tives, as thirty-nine AVorts are too many, to dedi- 

 cate to any one saint ; and the Hypericum Calyci- 

 num, growing close to the earth, with a large yellow 

 flower, whose hundreds of chives form so many 



F 5 



