ANEMONE CAROLINIANA. 



CAROLINA ANEMONE. 



NATURAL ORDER, RANUNCULACE^E. 



Anemone Caroliniana, Walter. — Stem slender, one-flowered; peduncle many times longer 

 thaii the small, sessile, three-leaved, three-toothed involucre ; radical leaves two to three, 

 long-petioled, ternate, deeply parted, lobed and toothed ; sepals fourteen to twenty, 

 oblong, white ; achenia numerous in a cylindrical-oblong head, woolly; stems six to twelve 

 inches high ; flowers one inch in diameter. (Chajjman's Flora of the Southern United 

 States. See also Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, Wood's 

 Class-Book of Botany, and Torrey and Gray's Flora of North Atnerica.) 



HE reader who will carefully compare Dr. Chapman's 

 description with our plate cannot fail to be startled by 

 the discrepancy in regard to the color of the flower ; for while 

 he distinctly and unequivocally states the color to be zvhite, 

 our illustration as unmistakably shows it to be violet or purple. 

 The discrepancy will be readily understood, however, by those 

 who are accustomed to deal with flowers. Variations in color 

 are frequently found, and the Anemone Caroliniana affords a 

 good example. This also explains why the various authors 

 differ so widely in speaking of the flower. Thus, Dr. Gray 

 says, "purple or whitish"; Prof. Wood, "white or rose-colored, 

 . . . outer sepals dotted with purple " ; and Torrey and Gray, 

 "white, often tinged or spotted with purple." The beautiful 

 specimen from which our drawing was made, and which was 

 kindly sent to us from Western Kansas by Mr. Sternberg, 

 makes it evident that still another must be added to this list of 

 variations, namely, violet or purplish. 



The Anemone is frequently mentioned in ancient Greek and 

 Roman mythology and poetry; but from the attending circum- 

 stances, it seems that the various stories with which the name is 



