GRATI'OLA AU'REA. 
GOLDEN HEDGE HYSSOP. 
Class. Order, 
niANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
SCROPHULARIN/E. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
N. America. 
4 inches. 
June. 
Perennial. 
in 1820. 
No. 374. 
The name of this genus not occurring in the 
ancient Greek or Latin writers, it is believed to 
have originated with the herbalists of the fifteenth 
or sixteenth century. The name itself, signifying 
grace or favour, supports the supposition, as it indi- 
cates medicinal virtues, which were then principally 
studied. Indeed, some of the old simplers used the 
appellation Gratia Dei, signifying Grace of God, 
for their Gratiola, which is the Gratiola officinalis 
of modern authors. Aurea, from the Latin, signify- 
ing golden or yellow. 
As our little Gratiola aurea is a native of Ameri- 
ca, and of late introduction, it is most probable that 
its medicinal virtues were never submitted to the 
test of a Galen or a Culpepper; therefore, although 
its generic connexion be of so high a medical cha- 
racter, it has reaped no laurels for itself in that de- 
partment of science. 
It is a neat but small plant, and is better fitted for 
pot culture, or the embellishment of the lapidium, 
than for growth in the mingled flower border. It 
may be divided for increase, and should be planted 
in a mixture of peat and loam, in a cool situation. 
Bot. Cab. 1399. 
