674 ASARUM. [CLASS xi. oEDia x. 



flowered plants have been by some authors made distinct species, the 

 red flowering plants having the petals with deeper, narrower, and more 

 spreading lobes, and the capsules rounder, with the valves recurved 

 while the white flowered one has broader less spreading lobes to the 

 petals, ovate conate capsules, and the valves of erect teeth. We do 

 not, however, find this character sufficiently constant, the petals both 

 of the red and white variety vary considerably in width, the shape of 

 the capsule is not constantly the same, and the teeth of the white 

 variety are as frequently reflexed as erect. 



Both these varieties are occasionally cultivated in gardens, and fre- 

 quently become double, and very ornamental ; but that the species 

 mentioned above are liable, unless care is taken of them, to return to 

 the single state. 



CLASS XI. 

 DODECAN'DRIA. 12 STAMENS. 



ORDER I. 



MONOGYN'IA. 1 PISTIL. 



GENUS I. A'SARUM. LINN. Jlsarabacca. 



Nat. Ord. ARISTOLOCHI'EJE. Juss. 



GEN. CHAR. Perianth single, campanulate, three or four cleft, 

 superior. Stamens twelve, placed upon the ovarium. Anthert 

 about the middle of the filaments. Stigmas radiant, in six lobes. 

 Capsules six celled. Name from a . not, and o-t^a,, a bandage; 

 because it was rejected from amongst other flowers used by the 

 ancients in making garlands. 



1. A. Europce'um, Linn. (Fig. 771.) European Asarabacca. Leaves 

 kidney-shaped, obtuse. 



English Botany, t. 1083. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 342. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 219. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 225. 



Roots fibrous, long, from creeping underground stems. Stem short, 

 round, terminating in a solitary flower from the axis, of a pair of 

 terminal leaves. Leaves on long channeled footstalks, roundish, 

 kidney-shaped, obtuse, a deep yellowish green, paler beneath, and 

 reticulated with branched veins, somewhat hairy and ciliated on the 

 margin, the footstalks and stem scattered over with long spreading 

 hairs. Flower solitary, drooping on a footstalk, from half an inch to 

 an inch long, of a dark purplish green colour, the perianth single, bell- 

 shaped, with a three cleft limb, erect or incurved. Stamens with awl- 



