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Dodecatheon Meadia. Mead's Dodecatheon, or American Cowslip.
❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Class and Order.
Octandria Monogynia.
Generic Character.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
This plant grows spontaneously in Virginia and other parts of North America, from whence, as Miller informs us, it was sent by Mr. Banister to Dr. Compton, Lord Bishop of London, in whose curious garden he first saw it growing in the year 1709.
It is figured by Mr. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, among the natural productions of that country, who bestowed on it the name of Meadia, in honour of the late Dr. Mead, a name which Linnæus has not thought proper to adopt as a generic, though he has as a trivial one.
"It flowers the beginning of May, and the seeds ripen in
" July, soon after which the stalks and leaves decay, so that the
" roots remain inactive till the following spring.
"It is propagated by offsets, which the roots put out freely
" when they are in a loose moist soil and a shady situation;
" the best time to remove the roots, and take away the offsets,
" is in August, after the leaves and stalks are decayed, that
" they may be fixed well in their new situation before the frost
" comes on. It may also be propagated by seeds, which the
