Sanguinaria Canadensis

Though the Sanguinaria cannot be considered as a handsome shewy plant, yet we scarcely know its equal in point of delicacy and singularity, there is something in it to admire, from the time that its leaves emerge from the ground, and embosom the infant blossom, to their full expansion, and the ripening of its seed vessels.The woods of Canada, as well as of other parts of North America, produce this plant in abundance with us it flowers in the beginning of April its blossoms are fugacious, and fully expand only in fine warm weather. It is a hardy perennial, and is usually propagated by parting its roots in autumn, a situation moderately shady, and a soil having a mixture of bog earth or rotten leaves in it suits it best.Its knobby roots, when broken asunder, pour forth a juice of a bright red or orange colour, whence its name of Sanguinaria with this liquid the Indians are said to paint themselves.Dillenius, has figured it in his admirable work, the Hortus Elthamensis, where three varieties of it are represented, viz. a large one, a small one, and one in which the petals are multiplied, but which can scarcely be called double.It appears from Morison, that the Sanguinaria was cultivated in this country in 1680, the date of his work.