than our plate exhibits, and being altogether more robust than the
plant it is intended to represent, comes so near officinalis, that it
might almost be doubted whether it is more than a variety produced
by a difference of climate. Indeed, the northern plant, which frequently,
and in fact most commonly, is half the size of the figure, would
appear to be almost distinct from the plant described by Mr.
Elliot.
Different specimens of gratiola officinalis in my herbarium, sent me
by Professor Mertens of Bremen, as growing wild near that city,
compared with specimens received from Copenhagen, and also with
good figures of the plant, exhibit considerable variation in leaves,
flowers, and bracts: one of these specimens, compared with a luxuriant
gratiola aurea, shows the latter to be strikingly allied to it. This
affinity would seem to indicate a resemblance in medicinable virtue;
if this should be the case, the G. aurea will be a valuable plant, for
the G. officinalis is deservedly commended as a powerful article of
the materia medica. It is one of the plants conjectured to yield the
celebrated tincture called Eau medicinale; but this opinion is contradicted
by the proprietor of the secret.
The variableness of G. aurea is remarkable in its size and general
habit. Specimens will often be found scarcely two inches high, in
flower, and the stem often appears quite quadrangular, though on a
nearer inspection, it will be found to be roundish, with prominent
ridges, giving it the four-sided appearance described by Pursh as a
character of the plant.
Table XX. Fig. i. Represents the plant of its natural and full size,
cut from the root at the mark. (*)