DICOTYLEDONS 1 45 



green-yellow flowers. The plant is herbaceous, 

 about one and a half feet in height. 



It has a very disagreeable odour which repels 

 animals, but it is occasionally eaten in forage on 

 the Continent, and imparts its flavour to milk. 



Taken in large quantities, it has injured horses 

 when mixed with lucerne, inducing all the appear- 

 ances of poisoning. The recovery was slow. The 

 effects are attributable to a bitter principle which 

 has been extracted, called Aristolochine. 



Dutchman's Pipe {A. Siphd) is a North 

 American plant climbing up walls, etc., having 

 large round leaves, and yellow and purple tubular 

 flowers. It has probably the same principle as the 

 former. 



ASARABACCA {Asarwn europceuni), — Mr. Bentham 

 includes this in our British flora, as it occurs in 

 woods and shady places, and is believed to be a true 

 native in the North of England and Wiltshire. 



It has an inferior ovary like the Aristolochia^ 

 but only a short tubular greenish-brown calyx ; 

 within it are twelve stamens, and six stigmas to 

 the pistil. The leaves are heart-shaped, arising 

 from a creeping rootstock. 



This plant has long enjoyed a reputation as an 

 emetic and purgative. The root has an acrid taste. 

 The leaves are acrid and nauseous. The root has 

 been found to contain an acrid, volatile prin- 

 ciple, similar to that of the poisonous Cuckoo-pint 



K 



