214 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



wort also) is a native plant. The former use of these 

 plants in medicine may indeed be responsible for 

 their occurrence in apparently native habitats. 



Asarabacca is found only in England. It has been 

 noticed in Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Hereford, 

 Denbigh, Leicestershire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, 

 which are more or less distant areas, so that the 

 distribution is discontinuous. 



Woods and copses are the chief habitat of Asara- 

 bacca. It is found also on banks. I have seen it 

 growing in the hedge-bottom, where it is in more or 

 less complete darkness, and a typical shade-plant, 

 all the habitats being shady places. 



In habit the plant, which is downy, is creeping, 

 with a fleshy rootstock. The stem and branches are 

 short, with a pair of leaves and scales. The leaves 

 are radical, dark green, rounded, heart-shaped, kidney- 

 shaped, shining, blunt, evergreen. 



The flower is solitary, from a short downy scape 

 between the leaves, greenish-brown. The scape is 

 bent back. The three perianth-lobes are pointed, 

 ovate, bent inwards. The flower is drooping. The 

 anther-stalks are awl-like, the alternate ones longer, 

 the connective having a long awl-like tip. The styles 

 are bent back. The stigmas project between the 

 anthers. The fruit is leathery and bursts irregularly. 

 The seeds are boat-shaped, wrinkled on the convex 

 face, with a winged or fleshy raphe on the other side. 



The plant is 4 to 6 in. in height, flowering from May 

 to August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



