46 Aristolochia serpentaria. 
The most common species in the United States, is the serpentaria. 
It has a perennial root, consisting of very numerous small fibres, 
proceeding from a short gibbous caudex. The small roots are of a 
yellow ochre colour, and become deep brown or black, on drying. 
The thick and knotty portion of the root is brown. The stems are 
slender, round, weak, flexuose, from eight to ten inches high, and 
jointed at irregular distances. The upper portion is yellowish, the 
lower purple. 
The leaves are lanceolate-cordate, entire, acuminate, of a yellow. 
green colour, and have short petioles. The flowers are solitary, and 
consist of a monopetalous, brownish-purple, tubular and irregular 
corolla, without any calix. The peduncles which are slender, round, 
and jointed, and occasionally garnished with a scale or two, are radi- 
cal or nearly so, and so arcuate as to bury the flower for the most part 
beneath the earth or dead leaves near the roots. The filaments are 
wanting, and the six anthers are attached to the stigma, which is 
nearly elobular. The hexagonal capsule is dark brown, and consists of 
six cells, which contain several minute flat seeds. This plant flowers 
in May and June, and ripens its seeds by the last of September. 
It inhabits rich shady woods from New England to Carolina, and 
Pursh says it is particularly abundant in the mountains. In the neigh- 
bourhood of this city it is not common; it is however found in 
some of our woods, both on the east and west side of the Dela- 
ware, 
