66 ERYTHRONIUM AMERICANUM. YELLOW DOG-TOOTH VIOLET. 



adopted by science, and indeed long before plants had any 

 botanical names at all. 



The resemblance to the violet is rather imaginary; but 

 as the European form, usually white, is often purple in Italy, 

 and blooms about the same time with the violet, the j^opular 

 name would at least seem to be explicable. The name of the 

 genus is not so well traced. Dr. Gray says, ''Erythronmm 

 is from Erythros, Greek for ' red,' which is inappropriate as 

 respects the American species." Prof. Wood seems of the same 

 opinion, as he says that the name is derived from " the color 

 of some of the species." But none of the European varieties 

 have flowers of a color deep enough to suggest such a name. 

 Dr. Darlington believes that the name was from " the purple 

 stains on the leaves." Botanists do not always give the reasons 

 for their names, and we are left to guess at them. The earlier 

 ones delighted in adopting ancient appellations. Erythronium 

 occurs in Pliny and Dioscorides, and some of the older botanists 

 thought it had reference to this plant, and so retained it, though 

 the plant referred to by these ancient writers was evidently 

 used in dyeing, which the Dog-tooth Violet could not be. The 

 family has, however, some use in human economy. The pow- 

 dered root of the European species was once used, with milk, 

 for intestinal worms in children. The root is rather acrid 

 when fresh, but becomes mealy when dry. Rafinesque says 

 fresh roots and leaves, stewed in milk, make a rapidly healing 

 application to scrofulous sores. Dried bulbs, however, lose this 

 virtue. Porcher, the most recent American author on the 

 medical properties of plants, says the bulbs are emetic when 

 powdered, and given in doses of twenty to forty grains. 



The Yellow Dog-tooth Violet is found in damp, shaded 

 woods in, we believe, all the Atlantic States, and westward 

 as far as the Mississippi, beyond which it gives place to other 

 species. The order to which it belongs is very small, consisting 

 of perhaps not over half a dozen individuals, even if we include 

 the marked varieties. Its nearest ally in our country is Liliitm ; 



