30 PACHYSANDRA PROCUMBENS. AMERICAN THICK-STAMEN. 



three stigmas, terminates the head-hke spike. In Pachysandra 

 the spike is long drawn out, the male flowers occupying the 

 upper portion, while the female flowers (generally two), with their 

 three stigmas, are at the base. In our plant the stamens have 

 remarkably thick filaments, and this suggested its botanical 

 name, Pacliysa^idra, which is the Greek for " thick stamen." 

 The plant seems to have no common name. It may, perhaps, 

 be admissible, therefore, to adopt the translation, and in contra- 

 distinction to the Japan species, to call this the " American 

 Thick-Stamen." 



Our plant is recorded by botanical authorities as inhabiting 

 woods in mountain districts from Virginia and Kentucky south- 

 ward to Western Florida ; but we seldom find it referred to by 

 local authorities, and it is rarely met with in collections of dried 

 plants made in the South. It is, perhaps, confined to districts 

 out of the usual line of travel. For a plant with a chiefly 

 southern range, it is a very hardy one, for it has been found to 

 endure the winters unprotected in the gardens of most of our 

 Northeastern States. Though, according to the descriptions of 

 authors, it grows naturally in woods, where it may have shade in 

 summer and the protection of leaves in winter, it nevertheless 

 thrives very well in open garden borders without any covering 

 in the winter season. It is very much prized by the lover of 

 curious flowers, not only for the peculiarity of its structure and 

 the earliness with which it blossoms, but for its delicate fra- 

 grance. The frost is scarcely gone before it is in blossom, but 

 so inconspicuous is the whole plant that but for the sweetness 

 of its flowers, which attracts insects to it in immense numbers, 

 it might easily be overlooked. Bees from long distances find 

 out the flowers and do homage to their sweets. Indeed, we 

 know of no flower to which the idea of modest worth is more 

 truly appropriate. Many a " wee little thing " possesses " blush- 

 ing " beauty which has to be sought for among the grass. This 

 does not blush, — it has no color, — but it is retiring, and yet 

 has intrinsic worth. When American poetry shall have apjDre- 



