374 ARISTOLOCHIACEAE 



5-cleft. Anthers borne on filaments and also attached to calyx-lobes by a tuft 

 of thread-like hairs. Placenta filiform, contorted. Fruit nut-like, crowned by 

 the persistent calyx-lobes, the cavity filled by a globular seed. North Amer- 

 ica and Europe, 5 species. (Greek kome, hair, and ander, man, referring to 

 the hairy appendages of the stamens.) 



1. C. umbellata Nutt. Stems many from a somewhat woody base, 5 to 12 

 inches high; leaves green or pallid, oblong, acute at base and apex, y 2 to 1 

 inch long, shortly petioled; flowers 2y 2 lines long; fruit globose, the size of a 

 pea, the persistent calyx-lobes forming a sort of neck. 



Sierra Nevada, commonly between 5000 and 6000 feet. North to British 

 Columbia and east to the Atlantic. July-Aug. Parasitic on the roots of 

 shrubs. 



Locs. Mineral King, Hall $ Bdbcoclc 5694; Old Colony Mill, Sequoia Park, Jepson 633 

 (flowers occasionally 6-merous) ; Alta Peak, Hopping 80; Merced Big Trees, Jepson; Pine 

 Eidge, Fresno Co., Hall fy Chandler 73 ; Clinton, Amador Co., Hansen 540 ; Jackson, Amador 

 Co., Hansen; Goose Valley, Shasta Co., Baker $ Nutting; Goosenest Mt., Butler 1069; Spring 

 Camp, Shasta Co., Misses Jones fy Alexander ; Sisson, Setchell $ Dobie. Narrow-leaved non- 

 glaucous specimens which seem intermediate between C. umbellata and C. pallida are as 

 follows: S. Fork Kaweah Eiver, Culbertson 4479; Alta Mdws., Grant 1309; Yosemite Trail, 

 Brewer 1629; Siskiyou Co., Bradley. 



Refs. COMANDRA UMBELLATA Nutt. Gen. 1: 157 (1818). Thesium umbellatum L. Sp. PI. 

 208 (1753), type spms. from Va. and Penn. 



C. PALLIDA A.DC. Prodr. 14: 636 (1857), type loc. Clearwater, Idaho, Spalding. Herb- 

 age paler or glaucous; leaves linear-lanceolate; fruit ovoid. Ore., Wash, and eastward. 

 Coville cites it as occurring at Mineral King (Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 4: 194), but we are 

 unable to refer definitely any Californian specimen to this species since our material of 

 Comandra does not seem to separate into two consistent units. 



ARISTOLOCHIACEAE. BIRTHWORT FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs or twining shrubs. Leaves simple, alternate, petioled, cor- 

 date. Flowers perfect, apetalous, with a petal-like synsepalous 3-lobed calyx. 

 Stamens 6 to 12 with extrorse anthers. Styles 6 or 1. Ovary inferior, 6-celled. 

 Fruit a fleshy or dry capsule. Seeds in 1 or 2 rows on the inner angle of each 

 cell, with a minute embryo in copious endosperm. Five genera and about 200 

 species, tropic and warm temperate regions of all continents. 



Calyx regular, persistent ; capsule irregularly dehiscent 1. ASARUM. 



Calyx irregular, deciduous; capsule septicidally dehiscent 2. ARISTOLOCHIA. 



1. ASARUM L. 



Nearly acaulescent herbs with fragrant slender creeping rootstocks bearing 

 2 or 3 scale-like bracts, then 1 or 2 reniform or cordate leaves on long closely 

 approximate petioles and a short-peduncled flower close to the ground in the 

 axil of the lower leaf. Calyx regular, campanulate, the limb 3-parted, the 

 lobes spreading or recurved. Stamens 12, nearly free from the styles, at first 

 reflexed, the alternate ones shorter; filaments more or less distinct, the con- 

 nective usually continued beyond the anther into a point. Styles 6, more or 

 less united. Capsule globose, fleshy, commonly bursting irregularly. Seeds 

 large, thick, 2 rows in each cell. North temperate zone, 15 species. (Deriva- 

 tion obscure.) 

 Eootstock stolon-like, remotely scaly; styles united, equaling the stamens. 



Calyx-lobes 1 inch long or more 1. A. caudatum. 



Calyx-lobes 4 to 6 lines long 2. A. lemmoni. 



Rootstock rather closely scaly; styles nearly distinct 3. A. hartwegi. 



1. A. caudatum Lindl. WILD GINGER. Evergreen herb; leaves cordate- 

 reniform, shortly acute or obtusish, pubescent below and above on the veins, 2 

 to 6 inches broad, on petioles 3 to 7 inches long ; peduncles 6 to 12 lines long ; 

 calyx-lobes triangular or oblong, attenuate into a tail which is 1 to 2 14 inches 



