IS ACORDS CALAMUS A NATIVE. 165 



recent date. Dr. Hooker states, in liis ' Student's Flora,' tliat lie has not 

 seen tlie fruit of Acorus, and I am myself in a similar case, but I have 

 not made a speeial search. Dr. Boswell-Syrae describes it in 'English 

 Botany,' but does not say if from British specimens. 



The bearing of these various data seems to me to be against the 

 nativity of Acorns Calamus in England. The plant is certainly not a 

 showy or conspicuous one, and might be passed over by an ordinary 

 observer, though its peculiar and powerful odour when bruised, readily 

 makes its presence known even to them, and its singularity of appearance 

 then becomes striking. It may be said, I think, with certainty that such, 

 good observers as Turner, Lobel, Clusius, Gerarde, Parkinson, and Johnson, 

 not to [nention others whose names are, from not being authors, less known, 

 could not have passed by so singular a plant, — familiar, too, to all but 

 Turner in the garden, and to which a special interest attached, from the 

 uncertainty and confusion prevniling as to the right name of its then 

 much-esteemed rhizome. Besides this, we know how readily Acorus is 

 established if planted in a suitable situation, and how rapidly such 

 aquatic species will extend themselves throughout a river basin. More- 

 over, in this case there was a direct incentive to assist this, for the root 

 bore a good price both as a drug and also among the brewers as a flavour- 

 ing for beer. It is, indeed, generally admitted to have been planted in 

 not a few of its stations ; and as definite statements on such subjects are 

 rarely put on record, it is well to say here that Dr. J. E. Gray, of the 

 Britisii ]\Iuseum, tells me, that the late Mr. Wiieeler,* of the Apothe- 

 caries' Company, planted it extensively about London, and that Dr. Gray 

 himself saw this done at the well-known locality at Lord INIansfield's, 

 Highgate (see 'Flora of Middlesex,' p. 291). It would seem still more 

 likely for the older apothecaries to act in this manner, and they probably 

 did so ; though, even without this direct interference of man, the Acorus 

 might readily become established on a river-bank in proximity to gardens 

 (as at Fulham, the first locality recorded for Middlesex), from the rhi- 

 zomes being thrown out with garden-rubbish. 



Devos tells us that in 1590 and 1591 Sebitz naturalized it at Strasburg, 

 and J. Bauhin at Belfort, and that in 1710 it had become abundant in 

 Alsace, though wanting in France, where, indeed, it is still rare. We 

 have seen that it was a little earlier in cultivation in Belgium, but there 

 is no definite record of its having been intentionally planted in wild loca- 

 lities there. 



In conclusion, when we find the history of the plant in western Europe 

 generally agreeing so closely with that in England, we must, I think, 

 allow that tlic case for Acorns as a native becomes still further weakened. 

 Indeed, all the facts about the plant seem to point to south-east Europe 

 and adjacent parts of Asia as the home of Acorus Calaiiius, and to a pro- 

 pagation westward by means of cultivation in botanic gardens ; whilst, 

 as far as Great Britain is concerned, it probably originated from Gerarde's 

 garden in Ilolborn, whither it may have been brought from Belgium by 

 his friend Lobel. 



* This Mr. Wheeler sowed and planted many rare species at Hampstead, in 

 the wood called usually Turner's Wood. (See Francis's Anal. Brit. Ferns, od. 1, 

 p. 64.) 



