54 Obolaria Virginica.
The two lowest branches of the main stem, are about three-fourths or
half an inch long, proceeding from the axills of the lower leaves,'and
each one supporting a pair of opposite leaves with three flowers, each
of which has a pair of bracts. The second pair of leaves above, are
nearly opposite, and support one flower with a pair of bracts, the
third, fourth, and fifth pair in similar manner, but crowded, giving
the apex a confused appearance. All the leaves and bracts glabrous,
involuted, of a dull bluish-green tinged with purple. Flowers
pale purple or lilac. Corolla urceolate below, where it is whitish. Segments
deeply cleft, four in number, acute, with the edge wrinkled.
Filaments slender, anthers straw-yellow, germ oval, obscurely fourangled,
terminated by the persistent style and stigma. April and early
May.
The genus to which this plant belongs, is exclusively American, and
hitherto onLy one species has been detected, the plant represented in
the plate, It appears to have been but little known. It was not found
in the herbarium of Linnmus, who however had seen and described
it, giving the genus the name obolaria, (from olAtlus, a small ancient
coin,) a name equivalent to money-wort, and in allusion to the orbicular
shape of the calicine segments. Siegesbeck had chosen the same
name for the plant now celebrated by bearing that of Linnaeus. Neither
Michaux nor Jussieu mention it, nor has Lamark figured it in
his illustrations. In fact, it is_ one of the rarest of American plants.
In the neighbourhood of this city it grows but in two or three locali-
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Obolaria Virginica. 55
ties, viz. on the Wissahickon creek and the Schuylkill, both sides, near
the falls; and in these I have never found but three or four specimens,
though I have carefully searched for them. The specimens from
which the drawing was made, were larger than any I had ever before
met with—owing probably to the favourable situation in which they
were growing, being on the low banks of the Wissahickon creek, exposed
to the south, and protected from the north by the high rocks
which bound that beautiful water-course.
In the Compendium Florae Philadelphicse, I have described this
plant as not exceeding three inches in height, and at the time of my
publishing that book, I had never met with specimens of greater stature,
owing probably to the deep shade of Abies Canadensis and Ju-
niperus communis, which rendered the woods impenetrable by the
rays of the sun. I am inclined to think that the size of the plant
represented in the plate is not equal to that which it would obtain
under culture in its natural soil, which is a rich mould, formed of
decayed vegetable matter. The whole plant is somewhat bitter, like
the roots of all the Gentianese.