44 Claytonia Virgin lea. 



stem, and in many specimens they are radical, in which case the hase 

 terminates in a long petiole of a whitish or red colour, owing to their 

 concealment in the earth. Stern generally bifoliate, but sometimes 

 naked, terete, glabrous, debile, drooping, or turning in arches, the 

 radical portion of a bright carmine-red colour. Flowers borne in loose 

 racemes, situated on slender, arcuate, secund peduncles. Calix con- 

 sisting of two lanceolate-ovate, sub-acute, entire, persistent leaves, 

 with white membranaceous margins. Corolla concave, delicate 

 peach-blossom-red, variegated internally with streaks of carmine, and 

 less conspicuously so without Germ ovate, the style as long as the sta- 

 mens, terminating in a trifid apex. Stigma glandular. Pistil greenish, 

 stamens inserted, each with a petal at the base of the germ, the fila- 

 ments peach-blossom-red like the petals, dilated at base, with rose- 

 red, erect, oblong anthers. Capsule sub-globose. Delights in moist 

 meadows and the edges of damp woods of rich soil near the decayed 

 stumps of trees. Growing generally in great abundance, throughout 

 the Union. Flowering time March, April, and May. 



The genus Claytonia was so called by Gronovius, in honour of his 

 Mend John Clayton, of Virginia, a distinguished botanist who ardently 

 investigated the plants of that state. He is chiefly known to the scien- 

 tific world, by the Flora Virginica,* a work to which Linnaeus, and all 



*The first edition was published in Leyden, in 1748 — and though its ostensible 

 author is Gronovius, the great value of the work is derived from the masterly botani- 

 cal descriptions of Clayton, communicated to his friend. 



