Il8 LIATRIS SCARIOSA. BLUE BLAZING STAR. 



to the flower garden, in the rich soils of which stems four feet 

 long- are not uncommon ; and it was from a specimen brought 

 from Kansas so growing in the writer's garden that the ilhistra- 

 tion here given was made. In these districts the species now 

 described is known as the "Blazing Star," and the long and more 

 feathery-flowered species " Gay-feather." Our text-books give 

 the names indiff"erently as applying to the whole genus ; but it 

 will serve a useful purpose to retain the former name for the 

 wide, round-headed class, and the latter for those which give the 

 spike a more feathery appearance. The common names given 

 to different species, and then indifferendy to any of them, have 

 been very numerous. Rafinesque gives Throat-wort, Sawort, 

 Button Snake-root, Back-ache-wort, Devil's bite, Ratde-snake's 

 master. Blazing Star, Gay-feather, Prairie Pine and Rough-root. 

 Sawort, or Saw-wort, may have been the translation of Scr- 

 ratula, in which genus the plants now known as Liatris were in- 

 cluded by Linnaeus. Some of the other names have an evident 

 reference to its properties or supposed medical virtues. The 

 knobby roots have a strong odor of turpentine when bruised, 

 and this explains " Prairie Pine," a name which seems to have 

 originated in Canada. "Button-snake Root" comes from its 

 fame as a remedy in ratde-snake bites ; and, as there are so 

 many kinds of " Snake-roots," the " Button," or slighdy tuberous 

 roots, have been added as a distinguishing mark. Its " fame " 

 seems to rest chiefly on the authority of Pursh, who says that 

 " the inhabitants of Virginia, Kentucky and Carolina call L. sca- 

 riosa and L. sqiiarrosa 'Rattle-snake's master,' and that when 

 bitten by the animal, they bruise the bulbs of the plants and ap- 

 ply them to the wound, while at the same time they make a de- 

 coction of them in milk, which is taken inwardly." Medical 

 writers say that the belief in the plant's usefulness against snake- 

 bites is very general, but none of them in these times seem to 

 have any faith in its efficacy. It is singular how notions as 

 groundless as this probably is, come in time to pervade whole 

 communities. Dr. Stearns, who in 1801 published an "American 



