98 HOUSTONIA C/ERULEA. BLUETS. 



customary to go back beyond the works of Linn^us in tracing 

 such records of botanical appellations. 



The propriety of the adjective ccEvidca (or cosrulca), which 

 means blue, has been questioned by some botanists. Thus an 

 English author of eminence says: " Why coertilea, we cannot tell, 

 for we have never seen any blue about it." This, however, 

 seems rather a strong statement in the face of the combined 

 authority of many other botanists. Prof. Gray says of the little 

 flowers of our species that they are " light blue, pale lilac, or 

 nearly white, with a yellowish eye " ; Prof. Wood describes them 

 simply as " pale blue, yellowish at the centre " ; and Dr. Chap- 

 man, who describes the plant under the name of Oldenlandia 

 coerulea, speaks of them as having the " corolla blue or white, 

 yellow in the throat." It will be seen that blue is given as the 

 leading color by all these authorities ; and it may, therefore, be 

 said, perhaps, that the Houstonia has as much right to be called 

 blue as many another flower. 



It is remarkable that so common and so pretty a plant should 

 have remained for so long a time without a generally accepted 

 English name ; and yet this was the case, as we learn from 

 Nuttall, who wrote in 1827: "I know no common, prevalent 

 name for our beautiful Houstonia ccsrulcay About 1830, bota- 

 nists speak of it as the " Venus' Pride " ; and this name still exists, 

 to some extent, in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. In many 

 parts of the country it is termed " Bluets " ; but even if we do not 

 object to the association with blue, we might ask, in imitation of 

 the English writer above quoted, " Why Bluets ? " for the word 

 certainly seems to be altogether meaningless. " Innocence " is 

 also quite a common name, and in some places, according to 

 Darlington and Wood, " Dwarf Pink." Near Philadelphia, the 

 universal name is " Quaker Bonnet," and elsewhere " American 

 Daisy" has also been used. It is rare that we have such an 

 abundance of names to choose from, and one is almost tempted 

 to say that the people, in trying to atone for the long neglect of 

 this modest, yet beautiful little flower, ran to the other extreme 



