HEXANDRIA— MONOGYNIA. Acorus. 157 

 197. ACORUS. Sweet Flag. 



Linn. Gen. 172. Juss.25. Fl. Br. 373. Lam. ^.252. Gcerfn. t.S4. 

 Calamus aromaticus. Mich. Gen. 43. t. 3\ . 9- 



Nat. Ord. Piperif^e. Linn. 2. Aroidece. Juss. 7. 



Cal, none. Spadix naked, nearly cylindrical, simple, covered 

 with sessile flowers, deciduous. Pet. 6, inferior, equal, ob- 

 tuse, concave, lax, rather thicker in the upper part ; pro- 

 tuberant at the back. Filam. thickish, erect, about the 

 length of the petals, and alternate with them. Aiith, of 2 

 roundish lobes, terminal. Germ, superior, sessile, elliptic- 

 oblong, the length of the stamens. Style none. Stigma 

 hemispherical, obscurely 3-lobed. Caps, triangular, ab- 

 rupt, membranous, of 3 cells, not bursting. Seeds several, 

 ovate-oblong. 



Aromatic smooth herbs, with creeping, horizontal, scarred, 

 woody roots. Stem none. Leaves radical, equitant, sword- 

 shaped, pointed. Stalk solitary, radical, central, com- 

 pressed, quite simple, bearing one lateral spadix, sur- 

 mounted by a leafy point. Only 2 species are known ; 

 the exotic one, brought from China, is hardy in our 

 gardens. 



1. A. Calamus. Common Sweet Flag. 



Leafy summit of the flower-stalk rising high above the 

 spadix. 



A. Calamus. Linn. Sp. PI. 462. JrHld. v. 2. 199. Fl. Br. 373. 



Engl. Bot.v. 5. 1.356. Woodv. Med. Bot. t. \73. Piirton v. 3. 31. 



LeersS6.t.\3.f.\2. Fl. Dan. t. 1158. 

 A. n. 1307. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 1G4. 

 A. verus. Bauh. Theatr. 626. f. 

 A. verus, sive Calamus officinarum, Rnii Syn.437. 

 A. verus, officinis falso Calamus. Ger. Em. 62. f. 

 Acorum. Matlh. Valgr. v. I, 19./. Camer. Epit. 5./. 

 Typha aromatica, clava rugosa. Moris, v. 3. 246 sect. 8. t. 13./. 4. 



In watery places, about the banks of rivers, l)ut not very general. 



In the rivers of Norfolk jjlenliful. On Ilillingilon common, Mid- 

 dlesex, and in other j)laees about London. Kelhan, Sibthorp, 

 Abbot and Purton have it in tlieir Floras. In Scotland it is un- 

 known. 



Perennial. June. 



Root thick, ratluT spongy, with manv long radicles, arom:itic, like 

 every part of the herbage, but much more powerfully so. Leaves 

 erect, 2 or 3 feet high, bright green, near an inch broad. Stalk 

 like the leaves, except being thicker below tlie spadix, and not 



