CALLIRRHOR INVOLl ( RATA 



PURPLl': l'( )PI'Y-MALL<)\V. 



NATURAI- oRDKK, M AIAACI..!.. 



CALLiRKiiuii iNVOLUCRATA, Asa Gray. — Stems spreading on the ground, one t<i tlircc feet 

 long; stipules conspicuous; leaves rounded, five-i)artcd or cleft and cul-lolK:d, shorter 

 than the axillary peduncle; involucre shorter than the calyx ; cor(jlla two inches or nmre 

 broad; carpels of the fruit reticulated, ti|)ped with a flat and inconspicuous beak. (Gray's 

 Fidd, Forest, and Garden Botany. Sec also Porter's Flora of Colorado, and Torrcy and 

 Gray's Flora of North America, under Afalva in7<olucrafa.) 



\LLIRRHOH, says Dr. Gray, is "a Greek mythological 

 name applied to Nortli .American plants." Hut this 

 meagre piece of information only whets the appetite for more, 

 as everybody is of course curious to know the precise reason 

 why this mythological name was gi\en to our flower. 



According to the ancient legends, CallirrJio'c, "the beautifully 

 flowing" (from two Greek words, signifying "beautiful " and "a 

 stream," or "something flowing"), was a nymph of the sea, one of 

 the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, and after her was named 

 a beautiful fountain at Athens, which exists to this day, and from 

 which flow nine streams in different directions. /\s the llower- 

 ing branches of our CaUirrhdc trail along the ground, and ema- 

 nate from one central point, like so many pretty little streams 

 starting from one fountain-head, it might be fancied that the 

 name was .suggested by the similarity to the "beautifully flow- 

 ing" well at Athens. 



Still another theory might, however, be advanced, connecting 

 the name of the ])lant with that of one of its relatives, with 

 which it was formerly associated in one genus. The lir>t 

 known species of the genus now called Callirrhoc was thought 



