Cortes found a town called by the Spaniards Terraguea, or the
city of serpents, whose walls and temples were decorated with
figures of the reptiles, which the inhabitants worshiped as gods.

The DOWNY RATTLESNAKE PLANTAIN (P. pubescens), usually a taller
plant than the preceding, with larger cream-white,
globular-lipped flowers on both sides of its spike, and
glandular-hairy throughout, has even more strongly marked leaves.
These, the most conspicuous parts, are dark grayish green,
heavily netted with greenish or silvery-white veins, silky to the
touch, and often wavy edged. This plant scarcely strays westward
beyond the Mississippi, but it is common East. It also blooms in
midsummer, and shows a preference for dry woods where oak and
pine abound.


LIZARD'S TAIL [LIZARD'S-TAIL, WATER-DRAGON]
(Saurus cernuus) Lizard's-tail family

Flowers - Fragrant, very small, white, lacking a perianth,
bracted, densely crowded on peduncled, slender spikes 4 to 6 in.
long and nodding at the tip. Stamens 6 to 8, the filaments white;
carpels 3 or 4, united at base, dangling. Stem: 2 to 5 ft. high,
jointed, sparingly branched, leafy. Leaves: Heart-shaped,
palmately ribbed, dark green, thin, on stout petioles.
Preferred Habitat - Swamps, shallow water.
Flowering Season - June-August.
Distribution - Southern New England to the Gulf, westward to
Minnesota and Texas.