Plant from a span to fourteen inches high. Stem towards the
root procumbent and radicating, terete, jointed, assurgent from the
base, slightly quadrangular above, marked with two furrows. Root
perennial, fibrous, creeping under ground. Leaves somewhat thick,
grass-green, opposite, about one inch long, and less than two-
eighths broad, closely sessile, dilated at base, acute, and marked with
about two, seldom three acute serratures on either margin, near the
apex, dotted under a lens with glandular pits, and three-nerved.
The nerves are indistinct to the naked eye. Peduncles scarcely the
length of the longest leaves, slender, pubescent, (not villous, as
Pursh describes them.) Flowers solitary, alternate for the most
part, but in very luxuriant specimens, sometimes opposite, seldom
more than two expanded at a time on the same plant, and often
only one. Leaves of the calix nearly equal in length, linear and
acute. Bracts longer than the calicine leaves. Corolla gamboge-
yellow. Tube hairy, oblique, ventricose in the middle; upper lip
roundish and notched, the lower equally trifid, segments oblong,
the intermediate one notched at the apex. Throat of the corolla
tube hairy within. Filaments two, the length of the tube. Style longer
than the stamens and persistent. Stigma funnel-shape, oblique.
Capsule ovate, scarcely as long as the calix. Seeds small, numerous.
Inhabits wet sandy places, the margins of ditches and rivulets
from New England to Georgia; common in New Jersey ; flowering
from July to September. The time of flowering in the southern
states, is from April to June, according to Mr. Elliot; in New Jersey
it blooms from July to August; and in the New England states from
August to September.
The genus gratiola was founded on the G. officinalis as a type;
and that plant was called by the ancient writers on botany and medicine,
gratia Dei, the favour of God, because it was believed to possess
very eminent virtues. Gratiola being a diminutive of gratia,
was imposed on the genus, which is nearly equally divided between
India and North America. It consists of twenty-two species, eight
of which are indigenous to the United States, growing principally in
the southern section of the union. The present species received its
specific name from Muhlenburg. It is peculiar to this country, and
so nearly resembles the G. officinalis of Europe, as to have been
mistaken for it by Michaux. Notwithstanding its affinity, however,
it is truly separable from that species. Like the officinalis, it is a
variable plant; and it is very likely that Michaux met with some of
the luxuriant specimens which grow in the southern states; in which
case, his mistake was natural; for though the northern gratiola could
not be confounded with the officinalis, yet the southern plant
described by Mr. Elliot as having ovate-lanceolate leaves, and
attaining a height of two feet, and consequently having larger flowers