134 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



Gelsemium sempervirens — Yellow Jessamine; Carolina Jasmine. 



A smooth woody, evergreen, twining vine, growing on the margins 

 of swamps and river banks from North Carolina to Florida, and west to 

 Mississippi. It has opposite leaves, about 2 inches long, lanceolate, 

 short petioled, entire on the margins, and acute at the base. The flow- 

 ers grow in small sessile clusters in the axils or angle between the leaves 

 and the stem, seldom more than half a dozen in a cluster. These flow- 

 ers are 1 inch to an inch and a half long, of a bright yellow color, and 

 fragrant. The calyx of the flower is small and five-parted. The co- 

 rolla is monopetalous and funnel-shaped, with five spreading lobes. 

 Each flower contains five stamens which are attached to the inside of 

 the corolla near the base, and are about half the length of the corolla. 

 There are two styles united together below, and nearly as long as the 

 flower. After the fall of the flower the ovary develops into an oblong 

 compressed, two-celled capsule, half to threes-fourths of an inch long, 

 which opens at the top and exposes several small oval, flat, winged 

 seeds. The plant belongs in the natural order Loganiacew. This hand- 

 some vine possesses powerful medicinal properties. It has for a long 

 time been popularly employed as a vermifuge in the Southern States, 

 but within the last thirty years it has been carefully examined and in- 

 vestigated by physicians, and its employment has been extended to 

 the treatment of many diseases. It is, however, a very active medicine, 

 and requires to be employed with great caution, as it is capable of pro- 

 ducing alarming and even fatal results in overdoses. The root is the 

 part employed, but its active principle also resides in the flowers and 

 probably in the leaves. It is a genus which is found only in America. 

 It rambles over bushes, and low shrubs, sometimes ascending trees. It 

 is one of the earliest flowers of spring. 



u The flowers are deliciously scented, and fill the atmosphere with 

 fragrance for long distances around. Though called jasmine in the 

 South, it has no botanical relationship to the genus Jasminium or the 

 true jasmines." Plate XVI. 



Spigelia Marilandica — Pinlc Root. 



An herbaceous perennial plant growing from 1 to 1J feet high in 

 clumps of several stalks proceeding from a mass of fibrous roots. The 

 stems are rather slender, somewhat four-sided, smooth, and furnished 

 with three to six pairs of opposite, sessile, leaves. These leaves are 

 from 2 to 3 inches long, ovate, smooth, entire on the margins and 

 acutely pointed. The lower pair of leaves is smaller, and the upper is 

 immediately at the base of the flowering raceme. This raceme or spike 

 is 2 to 3 inches long, with usually eight or ten flowers arranged on one 

 side. The flowers are sessile, with a calyx of five slender linear lobes, 

 and a tubular funnel or trumpet-shaped corolla, Lj to 2 inches long, 

 bright red outside, yellowish within, and divided into five narrow seg- 

 ments at the top. The stamens are inserted on the inside of the corolla 

 tube and reach nearly to its summit. The style is simple and a little 

 longer than the corolla. The flowers are succeeded by short two-celled 

 pods containing a few small seeds. The plant is most common in the 

 Southern States, but is occasionally found in the Middle and some of 

 the W estern States. It is said to be not very abundant even in the 

 South. It grows in rich dry soil in open woods. The root is the part 

 which is principally employed in medicine. It has considerable repu- 

 tation as a vermifuge. It is said that its virtues were first learned from 

 the Cherokee Indians. Several eminent medical men of Carolina made 

 trial of the plant more than one hundred years ago, and introduced it 



