1328 



AUBOKETUM AND 1 UUTICETUM. 



PA in- 111 



12U9 



glabrous upon the upper surface ; upon the uiulcr one stcllately pilose, 

 silvery, and scaly ; the scales rusty, deciduous. Branches 0|)positc. 

 Flowers disposed in upright racemes between the first 

 leaves, and of half the length of these. (Xiilt., IVi/ld., 

 and obs.) A deciduous shrub, a native of North Ame- 

 rica, on the borders of lakes, in the western parts of 

 the state of New York, in Canatla, and along the St. 

 Lawrence to its source, where it grows to the heigiit 

 of 6 ft. or 8 ft. It has been in cultivation, in British 

 gardens, since 1759, but is not frequent in collections. 

 The fruit is sweetish, but scarcely eatable. A plant of 

 this species, in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, is a 

 thinly branched shrub, about 5 ft. high, and not striking 

 in its general aspect ; the plant in the Hackney arbo- 

 retum is about the same height ; one in the arboretum 

 at Kew is only 3 ft. high. One in the Twickenham 

 Botanic Garden is 4 ft. high. 



CHAP. XCVIII. 



OF THE HARDY AND HALF-HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE 

 ORDER //RISTOLOCHIA'CEiE. 



Those of which we shall treat are included in the genus /iristolochia L., 

 which has the following characters : — 



j4ristolo^chi.\ L. Calyx of some other colour than green, and in colour and 

 texture resembling a corolla ; in its lowest part connate with the ovary ; 

 inflated above this part, then tubular, and ending in an expanded border, 

 which has 3 segments, and these are valvate in aestivation. Stamens 6, ad- 

 hering to the style and stigmas. Style 1. Stigmas 6, radiating. Capsule 

 with 6 cells and numerous seeds. Embryo very minute, placed in the base 

 of fleshy albumen. Habit of growth, in most, twining. Wood without 

 concentric zones. Leaves alternate, undivided in most. Calyx, which is 

 the obvious part of the flower, yellow, brown, dark brown, and, in some, 

 spotted on a yellow ground. {Lindley, Nat. S^.it. of Bot.; Willd. Sp. PL; 

 and observation.) Twining shrubs. The hardy species natives of North 

 America, and the half-hardy of Africa and the Levant. " The most re- 

 markable species of the genus .^ristolochia are those which, in many of the 

 tropical parts of America, excite the wonder of travellers, by the gigantic 

 size or grotesque appearance of the flowers ; such as A. cymbifera, the border 

 of the calyx of which resembles one of the lappets of a Norman woman's 

 cap, and measures 7 in. or 8 in. in length ;" (see Bot. Reg., vol. xviii. 

 t. \b\3.) and A. cordiflora and A. gigantca, the flowers of which are from 

 15 in. to 16 in. across, and are large enough to form bonnets for the Indian 

 children." (Pcnnj/ Ci/c, vol. ii. p. 328.) 



Genus II. 



/IRISTOLO^CHIA L. 



The Birthwort. 

 Hexiindria. 



Lin. St/at. Gyndndria 



Idrnli/ication. Schrcb. Lin. Gen., No. 1383.; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 151. 



Si/Honymcs. Aristoloche, Fr. ; Ostcrluzey, Oer. 



Ditivalion. AristolMchia was the name of a plant inentioneJ by Dioscoridcs, and considereil as of 



novcreign use in the disorders incident to childbirth : it is derived from ariston, best, and lochia, 



parturition. 



