PARNASSIA PALUS'TRIS. 
GRASS OF PARNASSUS. 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
Order. 
TETRAGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
SAXIFRAGE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Inhabits 
Britain. 
8 inches. 
July, Aug. 
Perennial. 
Marshes. 
No. 195. 
This plant, though it has no resemblance to any 
of the Grasses, is confidently believed to be what 
the ancient Grecian authors called the Grass of Par- 
nassus; and its secondary appellation is doubtless, 
from the growth of the plant on Mount Parnassus, 
or from some other connexion it held with that classic 
ground. Hence the term Parnassia has been given 
to it by modern botanists. Palustris, a Latin term, 
descriptive of its growth in marshy places, which is 
peculiarly its habit, and a principal reason why so 
few persons succeed in its cultivation. 
It is a very interesting little British plant, and has 
attracted great attention by its elaborate and beauti- 
ful nectaries, which are crowned with a semicircular 
row of little pellucid globules, generally thirteen in 
number on each scale. And it is also remarkable 
from the singular habit of its parts of fructification, 
which should not pass unnoticed. When the flower 
begins to open, the anthers are discovered close to 
the sides of the germen, but on the first morning of 
the expansion of its petals, one of the stamens w ill 
move from its apparent repose, and becoming elon- 
gated, will present its anther over the stigma or 
