DODOCATHEON MEADIA-AMERICAN COWSLIP. 



CLASS, PENTANDR1A J ORDER, MONOGYNIA. 

 NATURAL ORDER, PRJMULACE^E. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx, five-cleft. Carol, wheel form, five-parted, 

 turned back. Capsule, one-celled, oblong, opens at the top. Sta- 

 mens within tube, short. Anthers crowded. Stigma, obtuse. 

 SPEC. CHAR. Leaves, toothed, longish oval. Umbel, full of flowers. 

 Bracts, oval. 



One of our own writers remarks, that our gold Cowslips look 

 like a full branch of large clustering king-cups ; they carelessly 

 raise themselves on their firm stalks, their corollas gazing upward 

 to the changing spring sky, as they grow amid their pretty leaves 

 of vivid green. They adorn almost every meadow, and shed a 

 glow of beauty wherever they spring. It was first found by Michaux, 

 in the Alleghany Mountains, and subsequently discovered to be 

 very numerous in the woody country of British North America. 

 Seeds were sent from the Rocky Mountains to the Botanic Gardens 

 of Edinburgh and Glasgow, where plants were raised. Mr. Catesby 

 gave this American Wild Flower the name of Meadia, in honor of 

 a celebrated physician of his time bearing that name in England. 

 Phillips regrets that Linnaeus should have thought it necessary to 

 change the generic name of this plant frdtn that of Meadia, and 

 more particularly so since he has given it one so inappropriate, 

 Dodecatheon being derived from two Greek words which mean 

 M 



