96 FLOWERS OF THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



NOBODY seems to know why so beautiful a flower has so 

 barbarous a name. Though some, curious in these things, have 

 traced the name all the way back to Pliny, who knew a plant of 

 that name, they are still driven to the conclusion so sententiously 

 expressed by Dr. Gray, that " Rhexia has been applied to this 

 genus without obvious reason." It is thought to have some 

 value as a " vulnerary," or, in other words, to be useful in the 

 cure of wounds. Whatever may be said about its scientific, 

 nobody will call in question the peculiar fitness of its popular 

 name. It surely is " a thing of beauty," and so, by the poet's 

 logic, " a joy forever." 



It affects swamps and damp meadows as its favorite haunts, 

 and has a pretty wide distribution throughout the eastern United 

 States. A singular fact about it is that it is the only represen- 

 tative in our northern regions of an enormously large order of 

 plants native in tropical America. The order contains a thousand 

 species or more ; and out of them all, only this solitary one has 

 had the courage to emigrate north or undertake to live beyond 

 the thirtieth parallel. 



A striking peculiarity of the order is the strongly ribbed 

 leaves, the ribs varying from three, in the Rhexia, to as many 

 as nine in other genera. Another noticeable peculiarity of this 

 order is the long curved anther which is attached to the filament 

 at the middle. It usually has also an additional process like a 

 spur appearing near the point of attachment, as may be seen in 

 this species. Prof. Goodale says, "the pollen consists of ex- 

 tremely minute grains which escape through a pore at the apex 

 of the tapering anther." I have recently seen the statement 

 made by some observer, that the larger end of the anther is a 



