RUDBECKIA. 395 



he was only in his twenty-fourth year, it is more 

 than probable that this great man received a taste 

 for the science of botany from the foundation that 

 had been previously laid by his worthy country- 

 men, after whom this plant is now called in every 

 part of the world, where the European languages 

 are known. We have therefore placed it as the 

 emblem of justice in the Dictionary of Floral 

 Symbols. 



These flowers are placed in the third order of 

 the nineteenth class of the sexual system, because 

 the florets of the disk are bisexual, and those of 

 the margin neuter^ which is conspicuous in the 

 Rudbeckla Purpurea. This species is a native of 

 Carohna and Virginia, from whence it was intro- 

 duced by the Rev. John Banister previous to 

 the year 1699; and although it is indigenous to 

 warmer climes, it flourishes in the open parterres 

 of the British gardens. It rarely, however, ripens 

 its seed with us, and is therefore propagated by part- 

 ing the roots either in the autumn or in the montli 

 of March ; it loves an open exposure, and a light 

 free earth. The petals of this flower are of a 

 singular shape, being pendulous and curling in- 

 wards, having the appearance of so many pieces of 

 narrow ribbon notched at the end ; the colour is 

 nearer to a light crimson than to purple. This 



