428 ASARINEiE. [pakt h. 



tree and the Ogechee Lime, are quite hardy. 

 The flowers are sraall and insignificant ; and the 

 fruit is a drupe. 



ORDER CLXIV.— EL^AGNE^. 



The three genera included in this order are 

 the Sea Buckthorn {Hippophae), the Oleaster 

 {Eloeagjius)^ and the Shepherdia; all so easily 

 recognised by their silvery foliage, as to need no 

 particular description. The flowers are small 

 and inconspicuous. 



ORDER CLXV.— ASARINE^, OR ARISTOLOCHIE^. 



The genus Aristolochia, or Birthwort, is re- 

 markable for the very singular shape of its 

 flowers, which are as strange, and as much varied, 

 as it is possible for the wildest imagination to 

 conceive. The flowers are tubular, with one lip 

 much longer than the other ; and the tube takes 

 an abrupt bend near the middle. Here are six 

 anthers, fixed very curiously on the outside of a 

 club-shaped column, split into six lobes at the 

 point. In the centre of this column is a style 

 with a six-rayed stigma ; and the fruit is a large 

 capsule with six cells, which opens by as many 

 slits, and discharges the numerous thin, flat, 

 dark brown seeds. 



Asarum canadense^ the Wild Ginger of North 



