ERYTHRONIUM AMERICANUM. 



YELLOW DOG-TOOTH VIOLET. 



NATURAL ORDER, LILIACE/E. 



Erytiironium Americanum, Smith. — Leaves elliptical-lanceolate, pale green, mottled, and 

 commonly dotted with purplish and whitish; perianth light yellow, often spotted near 

 the base; style club-shaped; stigmas united into one. Scape six to nine inches high; 

 flowers one inch or more long. (Asa Gray, Manual of Botany of the Northern States. 

 See also Chapman's Flora of the Southern States, and Wood's Class Book.) 



HIS is one of our earliest flowers, being in full bloom in 

 Pennsylvania the end of April and beginning of May, 

 and earlier or later in Southern or Northern States. On this 

 account it received the name of " Yellow Snowdrop " from the 

 earlier settlers in Pennsylvania, who remembered the early- 

 blooming snowdrops of the Old World. Many other common 

 names have been given to it, but " Yellow Snakeleaf " prevailed 

 generally with the last generation, and it commonly receives this 

 name from modern writers on popular botany. The name, 

 however, which seems most in use at the present time, and 

 which, we think, will prevail, is " Yellow Dog-tooth Violet." It 

 varies very much in the markings of the leaves in some locali- 

 ties. Sometimes there are scarcely any spots ; then it often re- 

 ceives the name of " Lamb's Tongue." The name " Dog-tooth 

 Violet " is derived from the roots of the single European 

 species, Erytiironium Dens Cants, which is literally Dogs-tooth 

 Erythroninm. So great is the resemblance to the canine teeth 

 of the great friend of man, that the roots seem to have had this 

 name among all the old nations of Europe long before it was 



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