BIKTHWORT ASARABACCA. 249 



New Holland, the East Indies, and the South Sea Islands, the 

 tribe counts its members among shrubs and trees. 



The Sandalwood tree of commerce is one of them, it gives 

 the name to the tribe. My little friend grows on Warminster 

 Down, and near an old Roman encampment, called Battlesbuiy, 

 on an adjacent hill. 



The BIKTHWOET order has the perianth, or calyx, tubular, 

 with a wide mouth. The first family of the tribe is the Birth- 

 wort (Aristolochia) ; we have only one native species, and it 

 is very rare. The flower is yellow, and swollen on one side, 

 and the leaves are heart-shaped. I have only seen drawings 

 of the plant. Some of the American species have enormous 

 flowers of most quaint forms. In India boys wear the blossoms 

 of one of these plants upon their heads instead of caps. 



The Virginian Snakeroot belongs to this family. It is 

 useful in medicine, having somewhat the effect of Camphor. 

 It is employed in India as an antidote to the poison of 

 snakes. 



A specimen of the Asarabacca (Asarum europseum), was given 

 me by Mr. Ward ; it has a short stem, two kidney-shaped 

 leaves on long footstalks, and a purplish calyx cut into three 

 segments. It has one style and many stamens. 



The Pitcher-plants are closely allied to the Birthworts. 



When wandering on the Yorkshire moors I often found the 

 trailing stems and short Yew-like foliage of the Crowberry 

 (Empetrum nigrum), and I left an earnest charge with the 

 gamekeeper's good-tempered wife to send me the blossoms in 

 the early spring. No blossoms came ; but when the fruit was 

 nearly ready, she sent me a boxful of the plants. She wrote 

 expressing her regret at finding no blossom. She had watched 

 the plants carefully, she said, from the first opening of spring, 

 and had ascertained for a fact that the fruit came without 

 any blossom having preceded it. The flowers are certainly 

 very small, and as the male and female blossoms grow on 

 different plants, and the latter are particularly inconspicuous, 



