G ossypium. L. 15. 12. Cotton.
G. herbaceum. W. The common Cotton plant was introduced
from India or Africa ; at the north it is cultivated for ornament
and curiosity in gardens ; stem about 2 feet high, bearing
large white flowers, with its seeds involved in long wool. Its
history belongs not to the botany of Massachusetts.
Other exotic genera are cultivated in the greenhouse.
ORDER 36. HYPERICINEiE.
Outer floral envelope divided, monosepalous, or of 4 or 5 sepals,
including 4 or 5 petals, hypogynous ; stamens many, indefinite,
hypogynous, often in 3 or more sets ; leaves not
always opposite ; flowers commonly yellow ; some of the order
are herbaceous.
H ypericum. L. 12. 5.
H. perforatum. L, St. John’s Wort. A well-known plant
in neglected and barren, sandy fields; stem 2 feet high, branched,
and bearing many yellow flowers for a considerable time ; leaves
opposite, with many dots over the surface, as if they had been
perforated by a needle.
Eight other species., angulosum, Mx., ascyroides, W., Cana-
dense, L ., Corymbosum, L ., cystifolium, Lmk., parviflorum,
W ., sarothra, Mx., Virginicum, L ., are credited to this State,
and some of them are rather common ; but, with some striking exceptions,'
they have little beauty, and have not any useful application.
Another species has lately been found near Boston. Tuck-
erman.
H. ellipticum. Hooker. Stem a foot or more high, with elliptic,
obtuse leaves an inch long, and cyme nearly naked.
ORDER 38. SA XIFRA GE iE . S axifrage T r ib e .
Calyx divided sometimes to the base into 4 or 5 parts ; petals
none, or 5, between the divisions of the calyx ; stamens
5 or 10, perigynous or hypogynous, as the calyx is above or
below the germ or ovary, which is commonly composed of 2
carpels and their lobes, terminated by the sessile stigma ; leaves
simple ; herbaceous.
S axifraga. L. 10. 2.
S. Pennsylvania, L ., Water Saxifrage, and S. Virginien-
sis, Mx., Rock Saxifrage, are named from their usual habitations ;
the former grows two feet high, bright-green ; the latter is much
Smaller, and flowers very early in the spring. Their properties
are of little consequence.
P arnassia. L. 5. 3.
P. Caroliniana. Mx. Parnassus Grass. The English name
is a great absurdity, as. no part of the plant resembles any of the
grasses. Stem a foot or more high, with a single' ovate leaf in
the middle, and several oval leaves at the root; flowers white,
petals longer than the calyx ; 5 nectaries of 3 threads ending in
yellow heads, alternating with the stamens ; blossoms in August,
and grows in wet meadows and beside cold streams ; plentiful
in Berkshire County, and found also in the eastern counties.
C hrysosplenium. L. 10. 2.
C. Americanum. Hooker. A small, creeping, succulent
plant, about springs and brooks, with 8 stamens commonly;
leaves opposite, roundish, and narrowed to the petiole ; flowers
in April, with scarlet anthers ; dignified with the name of Golden
Saxifrage ; of no obvious use.
Hooker considers this plant as different from the European,
C. oppositifolium, L., which name had been given to it.
Mitella. L. 10. 2.
•M. diphylla. L. False Sanicle. Has'its flowers on a stem
about a foot or less high, in a raceme, with 2 opposite leaves,
and having radical leaves on bristly petioles, cordate, dentate, and
lobed; flowers small, white, delicate, their 5 petals being
beautifully pinnatifid, standing on the calyx ; grows abundantly in
moist woods, and blooms in June.