Page:Floras Lexicon-1840.djvu/32



MERICAN COWSLIP. . Class 5,. Order:. The elegant stem of a single root of this plant springs from the centre of a rosette of large leaves couched on the earth. In April it is crowned with twelve pretty flowers with the cups reversed. Linn&aelig;us has given it the name of “Dodecatheon,” which signifies “twelve divinities,” a name, perhaps, somewhat too extravagant for a small plant so modest in its appearance. An American writer says of them, in their indigenous soil, that they resemble a cluster of bright yellow polyanthuses. “Our gold cowslips,” he adds, “look like a full branch of large clustering king-cups; they carelessly raise themselves on their firm stalks, their corollas gazing upward to the changing spring sky, as they grow amidst their pretty leaves of vivid green. They adorn almost every meadow, and shed a glow of beauty wherever they spring.”