128 CROOMIA PAUCIFLOPA.—FEW-FLOWERED CROOMIA, 
“And not a beauty blows, 
And not an opening blossom breathes in vain.” 
Mr. H. B. Croom, in whose honor this genus was named, was 
one of the most enthusiastic of Southern botanists during the 
second quarter of our present century. “ Silliman’s Journal,” 
during 1833, 34, and 35, contains numerous articles from his 
pen, which made us acquainted for the first time with many val- 
uable facts concerning Southern plants. He studied the 
curious pitcher plants, or Sarracenias, particularly, and his mono- 
graph of them is regarded as one of the most valuable legacies 
to science. He was born in Lenoir county, North Carolina, in 
1799. He was educated for the law, but gave up all for the 
study of natural history. He with his wife and family were all 
drowned in the wreck of the steamer “Home,” off the coast of 
North Carolina, in 1837. 
