ACOKUS CALAMUS. 311 



number of forms, which may, with advantage, be reduced to two 

 species. The most interesting is the Acorous Calamus or " Sweet 

 Flag," Lin., a plant apparently known to the Greeks as uKopov. 

 Under the same name " akaron " it was known to the Arabs, and 

 has been from a very early date a drug of great fame in India 

 under the Sanskrit name of " Vaka " and the Hindi name " Bach," 

 but it is not to be confounded with the Calamus Aromaticus, Eoyle, 

 which is the Indian grass Andropogon Shccnanthus Lin. (vide p« 

 44, 1st Series), and probably the Kd\a/j.o<; apcoinarcKo^ of 

 Dioscorides, and KoXafMo^ of Theophrastus. 



The A. Calamus grows in ponds, by the banks of rivers and 

 other wet places in England, being very plentiful in the rivers of 

 Norfolk. It is also found in the cool parts of Europe, of India and 

 of Xorth America. It has been stated to be a native of Europe, 

 but is probably a native of Asia and was introduced into Europe- 

 The London market used to be principally supplied from the 

 rivers in Europe. According to Professor Johnston, as much as 

 £40 has sometimes been obtained for the year's crop of a single 

 acre of riverside land on which it naturally grows. It is now 

 cultivated in damp, marshy places in India and Burmah and is 

 exceedingly common in Manipur and the Naga Hills, often 

 appearing as a weed, spreading apparently from beneath the walls 

 dividing the fields. In warm climates it dcA'elopes greater 

 fragrance than in England. From the lower part of the thick 

 jointed stem or rhizome, which is very long, indefinite, branched 

 and creeping in the mud, the plant sends down numerous long, 

 straight, slender roots, while from the upper surface it pushes 

 upwards a number of lance-shaped leaves from two to three feet in 

 length, bright green, nearly an inch broad, sheathing at the base, 

 also a long, leaf-like stalk, from one edge of v/hich, a foot or more 

 above the root-stalk, issues a tall, compressed, spathaceous scape 

 and a lateral spadix, densely crowded with a mass of very small, 

 greenish, bisexual flowers (odorous when bruised), each provided 

 with a perianth of six pieces, enclosing six stamens and a three- 

 celled ovary with a sessile stigma. For figure of this plant see 

 Bentley & Trimen, Med. Plant, t. 279 ; Woodville, Med. Bot., t., 

 173 ; Sowerby, Eng. Bot., t. 356. Though naturally an aquatic 

 plant, the Sweet Flag will grow well in gardens, but under such 

 conditions rarely flowers. The leaves are much like those of Iris, 

 but may be distinguished from that and such like plants by the 



