Jlncales ] 



ORONTIACE^:. 



193 



Order LIX. ORONTIACE.E.— 



RONTIADS. 



Orontiaceae, R. Brotvn, Prodr. 3.37. (1810) ; Endl. Gen. p. 239. Adr. Juss. Cours. El6m. p. 506.— Cal- 

 \aw.ze:, Eudl. Gen. p. 239.(1836); Mcimer, p. 360.— Acoroiclere, Agh. Aph. 133. (1822 ; Schott. 

 Mektem, 22, (1832).— Acorinae, Link Ilandb. i. 144.— Acoracese, cd.pr. cclxii. 



Diagnosis. — Juncal Endor/ens, ivith spadiceous floxvers, and an axile embryo tvith a lateral 



cleft. 



Herbaceous plants, witli broad entire or deeply divided leaves, which however are 

 occasionally sword-shaped and equitant. Some of them are stemless, others scranil^le 

 over trees, to which they adhere by creeping roots ; a few are 

 aquatics. Flow^ers , on a simple spadix, furnished with a 

 spathe, white, green, or purple. Calyx and corolla absent, 

 or consisting of 4, 5, 6, 8 scales. Stamens of the same num- 

 ber, either hypogynous or perigyuous ; anthers 2-celled, 

 opeumg longitudinally or transversely. Ovary free, with 1 

 or more cells ; ovules erect, anatropal or campylotropal, or 

 pendulous and orthotropal ; stigma capitate, sessile, or fur- 

 nished with a subulate style. Fruit a berry. Embryo sht 

 on one side, in the axis of fleshy, or horny, or mealy albumen. 

 (Albumen absent in Scindapsus, Dracontium, Symplocarpus, 

 Orontivun. — Endl.) 



The greater part of these plants have the habit of Arads, 

 mth which they are usually associated, and from which in 

 fact they differ only in having hermaplu'odite flowers, which 

 have usually a scaly perianth. For this reason other Botanists 

 separate them, and it seems more especially desirable to do so, 

 because there is no tendency among them to a separation of 

 the sexes. Acoreee are indeed usually regarded as the type 

 of a peculiar Order ; and if this opinion is coiTect, the Oron- 

 tiads must certainly accompany them, for they differ in 

 nothing except the form of their leaves, which, in Acoreee, 

 are sword-shaped and straight- veined. In fact, Acorus seems 

 to bear the same relation to Orontiads as Pandanus and 

 Freycenetia to Cyclanths. Blume considers these plants to 

 be alUed, on the one hand, by Pothos to Peppers and Sau- 

 ruraceae, and, on the other, to Lilyworts. — Ruraphia 2. 74. 

 in wliich he is probably right ; for Aspidistrese form a connect- 

 ing Imk between Orontiads and Lihes. BroMoi has remarked 

 that in Dracontium polyphyllum and foetidum, in which there 

 is no albumen, the plumule consists of imbricated scales, and 

 that it is sometimes double or even triple. In the former of 



these plants the external scales, in germination, quickly wither away, when other inter- 

 nal and larger ones appear, and remain for some time romid the base of the primordial 

 leaf, before the development of which no rootlets are emitted. — Prodr. 334. A similar 

 economy has been noticed by Du Petit Thouars, in his genus Ou%irandra in Alismads. 



The plants of this Order chiefly occupy woodland stations within the tropics of both 

 hemispheres, but many are found in colder latitudes ; for Sj-mplocarpus is common in 

 the swamps of the United States ; Calla palustris inhabits the deep muddy frozen 

 marshes of S. Lapland, in 64° N., and on the Andes, Pothos pedatus and qumquener- 

 vius rise to the height of 8400 feet above the sea. 



The fresh leaves of Monstera pertusa are employed by the Indians of Demerai'a as 

 vesicatories or rubefiants in cases of dropsy. The root and seeds of Skmik Cabbage, 

 Symplocarpus foetidus, a most foetid species, are powerful antispasmodics and expec- 

 torants ; they have considerable reputation in N. America, as palliatives in paroxysnis 

 of asthma. Dracontium polyphyllum, said to be the Labaria plant of Demerara, is 

 reputed to possess .similar properties. Orontium aquaticum is acrid when fresh, but its 

 di'ied root can be eaten without inconvenience. The corm of the beautiful Richardia 

 africana, with its snowy spathe and golden spadix, was formerly officmal under the 

 name of Radix Ari ^Ethiopii. The rhizomes of Calla palustris, although acrid and 

 caustic in the highest degree, are, according to Linnaeus, made into a Idnd o f bread in 



Fig. CXXXII.— Calla palustris ; 1. a flower; 2. a section of the ovary ; 3. a perpendicular section 

 of the ripe fruit ; 4. a seed ; 5. its longitudinal section. — Nees. 







Fig. CXXXII. 



