lO GELSEMIUM SEMPERVIRENS. CAROLINA JASMINE. 



It is one of the earliest of spring flowers. The specimen from 

 which our drawing was made was gathered in Florida, in Jan- 

 uary, and we have seen the plant in flower everywhere in Mis- 

 sissippi in March. The flowers are dcliciously scented, and fill 

 the atmosphere with fragrance for long distances around. It is 

 singular that Catesby, who wrote a history of the Carolinas, 

 should say that the plant was not an evergreen. Owing to this 

 error the name of Michaux, Gelsemium nitidum, was adopted by 

 De Candolle, but this name is now generally dropped for the one 

 we have chosen, and we refer to it here only that readers may 

 not suppose there are two species under these names. It may 

 be that sometimes the plant drops its leaves. It is subject to 

 " notions," for Nuttall says he found near Savannah a kind which 

 was utterly scentless, a rare peculiarity in a flower that is usually 

 so sweet. This peculiarity may, however, have some relation to 

 its dimorphic condition, a character first pointed out by Professor 

 Asa Gray, in Silliman's Journal, in 1873. By this is meant that 

 some flowers have the pistils longer than the stamens, while 

 others have them shorter. In such cases it often happens that 

 the short-pistilled flowers do not seed, their only use seeming to 

 be to furnish pollen for the more perfectly pistillate individuals, 

 and varying odor may go with these varying states. 



Notwithstanding its beauty as a climber, and the sweetness of 

 its golden flowers, the Carolina Jasmine possesses qualities dan- 

 gerous to the ignorant, though of great value to the intelligent 

 medical practitioner. Dr. Peyre Porcher tells us that during the 

 war between the North and the South, when medicines in popu- 

 lar use were cut off by the blockade, this plant was commonly 

 employed as a narcotic. The expressed juice was found to pro- 

 duce insensibility to pain, and yet without stupor. Overdoses, 

 however, produced unconsciousness and death. Dr. Porcher 

 says that the plant is gradually advancing northwards, and speaks 

 of it as having " reached Norfolk," as if on a travelling excursion. 

 Where its starting-place was does not appear. It is very com- 

 mon in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, and thence up along 



