106 A GUIDE TO FLORICULTURE. 



CAROLINA PINK 



(SPIGELIA MARILANDICA.) 



" I love thee, yes, as flowers love light and air, 

 As night to stars, or earth the glorious sun, 

 As the cherished heart loves lone and earnest prayer, 

 So I love thee . 



This is a perennial, rooted, herbaceous plant, a native of 

 this country. There is something prepossessing 1 in the ap- 

 pearance of this native flower, not only from the singularity 

 of its appearance, but it may be considered ornamental 

 withal, and is becoming a favorite. The root fibres branch 

 and are thrown off some distance, and several stems arise 

 from the roots about two feet high, with a spike of flowers 

 of a beautiful carmine crimson, in the shape of a funnel. 

 The flowers being situated all on one side of the stem, 

 the weight of which bend it in a graceful form, consist- 

 ing of ten to twenty in number. The leaves are opposite, 

 without foot stalks, ovate, lanceolate, and smooth. The ca- 

 lyx of the flower is persistent, with five long subulate serrate 

 leaves turning back, of a yellow color, giving a contrast 

 novel and striking to the eye ; the stamens short and insert- 

 ed in a cup ; anthers oblong heart shape, the germ ovate ; 

 style the length of the corolla, ending in a linear fringed 

 stigma projecting beyond it; a double capsule consisting of 

 cohering globular celled portions containing the seed. This 

 plant has been used extensively for its medicinal properties 

 as a cathartic, and in some cases has proved rather detri- 



