HELIANTHEMUM CAROLINIANUM. 

 CAROLINA SUN ROCK-ROSE. 



NATURAL ORDER, CISTACEiE. 



HELIANTHEMUM CAROLINIANUM, Michaux. — Hirsute; leaves lanceolate, denticulate, acute, 

 short-petioled, the lowest obovate, crowded ; flowers large, solitary, borne above the axils. 

 Stems six to twelve inches high, ascending from a shrubby base. Flowers one inch wide. 

 (Chapman's Fio?-a of the Southern United States. See also Wood's Class- Book of Botany.) 



HE ancient fables connected with flowers often seem 

 common-place when taken as they stand, but there are 

 often beautiful ideas beneath them, whether the authors intended 

 so or not, and which even the dullest may perceive and the most 

 intellectual admire. Indeed they should be regarded as alle- 

 gories radier than as fables, if we would derive full benefit 

 from them. There is, for instance, the story of Persephone, the 

 charming daughter of Ceres, who for her great beauty was car- 

 ried by Pluto to his dreary realms; and who for some fault could 

 not be fully restored to her fond mother's arms, but was com- 

 pelled to remain six months in the subterranean regions, and 

 return to earth the other six only. The poet describes how 

 ravishing was her annual visit, surrounded as she was by the 

 beautiful blossoms and other accessories of the vernal season. 

 In like manner we may feel in a measure carried to the Plutonic 

 regions when winter comes to drive us away from the green fields 

 and lovely flowers ; and when our six months of cheerless soli- 

 tude shall have passed, to feel with Persephone the pleasures 

 which come with the returning flowers of spring. 



Our present subject is a spring flower — one of those which 

 even Persephone might welcome. It comes from the southern 



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