HELO'NIAS LAl'TA. 
RED-SEEDED HELONIAS. 
Class. Order. 
HEXANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
MELAKTHACE^. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
N. America. 
inches. 
June. 
Perennial. 
in 1770. 
No. 622. 
The habitation of the plant originally called He- 
lonias gave occasion for the adoption of the name, 
from the Greek helos, a marsh; but for what plant 
it was first intended by the ancients is mere matter 
of speculation for botanists of the present day. 
Some authors have followed JMichaux in nomen- 
clature and the distribution of several allied species 
into other genera than Helonias, this plant, how- 
ever, is the Helonias erythrosperma of that bota- 
nist. 
The natural order to which our present plant be- 
longs is somewhat remarkable for being composed 
of such as contain poisonous properties. It has, 
indeed, ‘been said that every species of all the gene- 
ra included in it, which are more than thirty, pos- 
sess deleterious qualities. Our well known native 
Colchicum, Herb Paris, and Tofieldia pulustris 
belong to it. 
Helonias Iseta was introduced to this country 
from the river banks of lower Carolina, by the late 
Lord Coventry. It is usually kept in a pot with 
alpines, but will bear the generality of our winters 
unprotected. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 2, 330. 
