aristolochiace^e. (birth wort family.) 359 



Division HI. APETALOUS EX6GENOUS PLANTS. 



Corolla none ; the floral envelopes in a single series (calyx), or 

 sometimes wanting altogether. 



Order 87. ARISTOLOCHIACE^. (Birthwort Fam.) 



Climbing shrubs, or low herbs, with perfect jioicers, the conspicuous lurid 

 calyx (valvale in the bud) coherent below with the ^-celled ovary, which form* 

 a many-seeded G-celled pod or berry in fruit. Stamens 6-12, more or less 

 united with the style: anthers adnate, extrorse. — Leaves petioled, mostly 

 heart-shaped and entire. Seeds anatropous, with a large fleshy raphe, and 

 a minute embryo in fleshy albumen. 



1. ASA HUM, Tourn. Asarabacca. Wild Ginger. 



Calyx regular; the limb 3-cleft or parted. Stamens 12, with more or less 

 distinct filaments, their tips usually continued beyond the anther into a point. 

 Fruit fleshy, globular, bursting irregularly. — Stemless herbs with aromatic- 

 pungent creeping rootstocks bearing 2-3 kidney-shaped or heart-shaped leaves 

 on long petioles, and a short-pcduncled flower close to the ground. (An ancient 

 name, of obscure derivation.) 



§ 1. ASARUM Proper. — Calyx-tube wholly coherent with the ovary : filaments 

 slender, united only with the base of the style, much lonyer than the short antli, rs: 

 styles united into one, which is barely 6-lobcd at the summit, and with 6 radiating 

 thick stigmas : leaves membranaceous, unspotted, on flowering stems mostly a si 

 pair, with the peduncle between them. 



1. A. Canadense, L. Soft-pubescent; leaves kidney-shaped, more or 

 less pointed (4' -5' wide when full grown) ; calyx bell-shaped, with the upper 

 part of the acute lobes widely and abruptly spreading, brown-purple inside ; 

 stamens awn-tipped. — Hill-sides in rich woods ; common, especially northward, 

 and along the Allcghanies : also in Illinois. April, July. 



§2. HETEROTROPA. — Calyx-tube somewhat inflated beloio and contracted i<l 

 the throat, only its base coherent with the lower part of the ovary; the limb 3- 

 short : fi laments very short or none: anthers oblong-linear : styles 6, fleshy, diverging, 

 2-cleJl, each bearing a thick extrorse stigma below the clefl : leaves thickish, per- 

 sistent, the upper surface often whitish-mottled, alternate on the rootstock : peduncle 

 very short. 



2. A. Varginicum, L. Leaves rowid-heart-shaped (l£'-2' wide) ; calyx 

 ventricose-bell-shaped ; anthers pointless. — Virginia, and southward, in and near 

 the mountains. May. 



3. A. arifdlium, Michx. Leaves halberd-heart-shaped (2' -4' long); 

 calyx oblong-tubular, with very short and blunt lobes ; anthers obtusely sJiort- 

 pointed. — Virginia, and southward. May. 



