CROOMIA PAUCIFLORA. 

 FEW-FLOWERED CROOMIA. 



NATURAL ORDER, ROXBURGH I ACE^. 



Croomia PAUCIFLORA, Toiiey. — Perianth deeply four parted, persistent, the spreading nerve- 

 less oval divisions imbricated in the bud. Filaments separate, thick, erect, inserted on the 

 base of the perianth opposite its lobes : anthers short, oblique, with the connective short 

 or wanting. Ovary globose-ovate, sessile. Stigma two-lobed. Ovules four to six. Fruit 

 follicular, beak-pointed, at length two-valved. Seeds one to four, obovate, suspended 

 from the nerve-like, at length free placenta, nearly covered by the fibres of the cord. 

 Embryo minute, obovate. (Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States.) 



N giving a general view of the Flora of the United States 

 we have endeavored to make the selections from as 

 many different natural orders or botanical groups as possible, 

 so as to assist the student in his botanical studies, at the same 

 time keeping an eye in the selections, to those which, from their 

 intrinsic beauty or other popular points of interest commend 

 themselves to the mere lover of wild flowers, or to those who 

 simply wish to follow in the wake of polite intelligence. But in 

 looking about for a representative of the natural order Rox- 

 biirghiacece, we are deprived of all choice, as it has but the single 

 genus Croomia in the United States, and this genus is repre- 

 sented by a single species only, Croomia paucifloi^a, the plant now 

 illustrated. Yet aside from this reason for its present introduc- 

 tion, and even were it objected that it has little beauty of coloring 

 to claim our attention, there are so many points connected with its 

 botanical and popular history, and so much that is particularly 

 instructive to the student, that it would be unjust to the aim and 

 objects of our work not to give it an honored place among 

 our " native flowers." 



('25) 



