CLAYTO'NIA VIRGIN'ICA. 
VIRGINIAN CLAYTONIA. 
Class. Order. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
PORTOLACE2E. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
N. America. 
4 inches. 
April, May. 
Perennial. 
in 1759. 
No. 138. 
Claytonia, named from John Clayton, who collect- 
ed plants in Virginia, and sent them to Gronovius, a 
physician and botanist of Leyden. Gronovius, with 
the assistance of Linneus, arranged the plants so 
acquired, according to the sexual system ; and in the 
year 1739, published them under the title of Flora 
Virginica. 
This delicate little subject, which comes in with 
other similar ornaments of the spring, should have 
a place in every collection. Though not extremely 
conspicuous, it is interesting ; and is one of those 
subjects, which, like some of our best friends, rises 
in our estimation, as our intercourse increases. 
As it is with men, so it is with plants : some bear 
their principal qualifications on their exterior, and 
are seen by all the world. Others have hidden virtues, 
which are alone discovered by an intimate acquaint- 
ance; and some there are, truly, that neither the 
scientific nor the unlearned can discover for what 
good purpose they exist. 
This plant increases but slowly in our climate. 
It may be kept in a pot with the alpines, or be planted 
in a sheltered shady border of sandy peat. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 2, 53. 
