54 Obolaria Virginica, 



The two lowest brandies of the main stem, arc about three-fourths or 

 half an inch long, proceeding from the axilla of the lower leaves, and 

 each one supporting a pair of opposite leaves with three flowers, each 

 of which has a pair of bracts. The second pair of leaves above, are 

 nearly opposite, and support one flower with a pair of bracts, the 

 third, fourth, and fifth pair in similar manner, but crowded, giv- 

 ing the apex a confused appearance. All the leaves and bracts gla- 

 brous, involuted, of a dull bluish-green tinged with purple. Flowers 

 pale purple or lilac. Corolla urccolate below, where it is whitish. Seg- 

 ments deeply cleft, four in number, acute, with the edge wrinkled. 

 Filaments slender, anthers straw-yellow, germ oval, obscurely four- 

 angled, terminated by the persistent style and stigma. April and early 

 May. 



The genus to which this plant belongs, is exclusively American, and 

 hitherto only one species has been detected, the plant represented in 

 the plate. It appears to have been but little know n. Il was not found 

 in the herbarium of Linnaeus, who however had seen and described 

 it. giving the genus the name obolaria. (from obolus, a small ancient 

 coin,) a name equivalent to money-wort, and in allusion to the orbicu- 

 lar shape of the calicinc segments. Siegesbeck had chosen the same 

 name for the plant now celebrated by bearing that of Linnaeus. Neither 

 Michaux nor Jussieu mention it, nor has Lamark figured it in 

 his illustrations. In fact, it is one of the rarest of American plants. 

 In the neighbourhood of this city it grows but in two or three locali- 



