I 



ANDROMEDA MARIANA. 



STAGGKR-BUSII. 



NATURAL ORDKR, ERICACE/E. 



Andromeda Mariana, Linnaeus. — Glabrous, or slightly pubescent, two to four feet high; 

 leaves oblong or oval, obtuse or acute at both ends, entire, loosely veiny (one to three 

 inches long); fascicles of nodding flowers racemose on naked shoots; corolla cylindra- 

 ceous-campanulate, with sligiUly narrowed orifice, white or pale rose color (almost half 

 an inch long) ; filaments hairy outside, their very small setose appendage below the sum- 

 mit occasionally obsolete or wanting ; capsule ovate-pyramidal, truncate at the contracted 

 apex; the placentae low down. (Gray's Synoptical Flora of A'oi th Atuerica. Sec also 

 Gray's Matmal of the Botany of the Northern United States, Chapman's Flora of the 

 Southern United States, 2a\A Wood's Class-Dook of Botany.) 



NDROMEDA was a fair Ethiopian i)rincess, wlio, ac- 

 cording to the pretty story told by Ovid in tlu' fourth 

 book of his " Metamorphoses," was rescued from a terrible fate, 

 and afterwards married by Perseus, the celebrated Greek hero. 

 It is, of course, impossible to decide at this late day whether oi:r 

 princess had the proverbial Ethiopian skin, or whether she was 

 "fair" in the Caucasian sense. But, however that may be, our 

 poets and painters represent her as having been among the 

 fairest of the fair; and if this be true, she certainly would have 

 no reason to be ashamed of her namesake, Andromeda Ma- 

 riana, which is one of the purest and fairest of tlie princesses 

 of the kingdom of Flora. Our picture is a good representation 

 of the flower, but no artist can do justice to its beauty as seen 

 growing in favorable seasons in the rieli, jx-aty, half-swampy 

 barrens of New Jersey. Snow is white, but the whiteness of 

 these flowers excels it, owing to the delicate, waxy texture of 

 their corollas. In Pennsylvania, where the i)lant is generally 

 found in dryer soil, or sometimes even on rocks, as for exampl'- 



