ERYTHRONIUM AMERICA'NUM. 
YELLOW-FLOWERED DOGS-TOOTH VIOLET. 
Class. Order. 
HBXANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
LILIACEiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
N. America. 
4 inches. 
April. 
Perennial. 
in 1665. 
No. 178. 
Erythronium, from the Greek eruthros, sig- 
nifying red, either in allusion to the flower of the 
better known species, Erythronium Dens Canis, or 
to the stain on the leaves. Another species has 
been found in America, which has occasioned some 
botanists to call this Erythronium Flavum ; but the 
trivial name Americanum is now too well established 
to admit the change. 
The medicinal virtues of this plant are know T n in 
America, and its bulbs have been found to possess 
an emetic property; twenty or thirty grains of 
which form a dose. When thoroughly dried they 
lose nearly the whole of this quality. 
Notwithstanding this very beautiful little spring 
flower bears our winters uninjured, and also in- 
creases in the open ground, still its blossoms are 
sparingly produced. This appears to be partially 
remedied by keeping it in a deep narrow pot; and 
if it be inconvenient to shelter it, during winter, in 
a cold frame, the pot may be wholly sunk in the open 
border. It should be planted in sandy peat, and at 
the depth of four, or even five, inches beneath tke 
surface of the soil. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 2, 248. 
