DENTARIA LACINIATA. 



CUT-LEAVED TOOTH-WORT. 



NATURAL ORDER, CRUCIFER/E. 



Dentaria LACINIATA, Muhlenberg. — Root -jointed ; stem-leaves mostly three, whorled, ternately 

 divided ; leaflets lanceolate or linear, lobed and toothed ; the lateral ones two-parted, those 

 of the root similar or sometimes wanting ; racemes few or sometimes many-flowered, often 

 shorter than the leaves ; flowers white or pale-purple. Stem from four to twelve inches 

 high. (Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States. See also Gray's Manual of the 

 Botany of the Northern United States, and Wood's Class- Booh of Botany.) 



HIS is one of the earliest wild flowers of spring. Ac- 

 cording to Chapman it commences to flower in March 

 in the South, and in the North it is seldom later than May. 

 These early flowers are always welcome. As a rule those of 

 summer and autumn boast of gayer colors. But after the 

 dreariness of winter has passed away, and 



" The sun is on the waters, and the air 



Breathes with a stirring energy ; the plants 

 Expand their leaves, and swell their buds, and blow, 

 Wooing the eye, and stealing on the soul 

 With perfume and with beauty, " 



we are not particular then about the style of beauty, and are 

 pleased with a very slight perfume. Our "Tooth-wort" is, how- 

 ever, not without real claims on the lovers of showy things. A 

 correspondent of the "Garden," who has been recently cultivating 

 it in England, says : " This is a very handsome dwarf cruciferous 

 perennial, the large, rosy-purple flowers being rendered more 

 conspicuous by the bright green leaves. It is a North Ameri- 

 can plant, and is infinitely more beautiful than the Dentaria bul- 

 bifera, the common 'coral-root' of the woods and copses of 

 some of our southern counties." 



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