8 Coreopsis verticillata.
The genus Coreopsis affords some of the most elegant of our summer
and autumnal flowers—several species have already been figured
in this work. The present one is confined exclusively to states
southern of Pennsylvania. Though I have met with it near the borders
of this state, I have never seen it growing wild within its limits;
yet the Alleghany mountains contain many plants with which this
grows in company where I have seen it, and it is more than probable
that it grows in some of its arid woods. Under cultivation,
like all the species of this genus, it improves much in size and luxuriance
$ and notwithstanding its evident predilection for dry sunny
places, it is found to thrive in damp shady borders of rich soil, in gardens
into which it has been introduced. Its similarity with another
species, the tenuifolia, has caused some botanists to confound them under
the idea of their identity. Besides that the leaves of the tenuifolia
are much more delicate, long, and less rigid than those of the present
plant a slight glance at the ray petals of the former will suffice to
show their discrepancy with those of the verticillata. Pursh by a singular
oversight, has given precisely the same specific character to
both these species, quoting Willdenow for both, referring to different
pages of his work. The present plant may be recommended as a
hardy perennial, increasing rapidly by sowing its own seed, in the open
borders of gardens, and is well worth cultivation to the exclusion of
the numerous less showy and more troublesome exotics so often nurtured
there.
The table represents a flowering portion of the plant as large as
nature.