50 DICTIOXARY OF POPULAR NAMES BIRTHWORTS 



are produced round an acaulose axis, their bases overlapping 

 each other, forming a cup like a bird's nest ; it is widely dis- 

 tributed throughout tropical Asia^and islands of the Pacific; it has 

 large, broad, smooth fronds, which are surpassed in size only by 

 J^, muscefolia, which has the largest simple entire fronds of all 

 ferns ; it is described by a Penang correspondent in the follow- 

 ing words : — " I saw two fine specimens of the bird's-nest fern ; 

 each had between forty and fifty perfect green leaves; the average 

 length of the leaves was 6 feet, and from 1 foot to 14 inches 

 across in the broadest part. They were growing on each side of 

 the doorway of the mansion ; when I was walking up to them 

 I thought they were American aloes." 



Birthworts, the common name for the species of Aristoloehia, 

 the type of the Birthwort family (Aristolochiaceae), of which 

 about 180 species are described, chiefly natives of tropical 

 America, consisting of small trees, shrubs, and climbers, the 

 latter often found growing with passion flowers and Big- 

 nonias, forming an interminable lacing of the forests, and 

 causing them to appear as if the whole were tied together 

 v/ith ropes. Birthworts are remarkable for the oddity of their 

 flowers, which consist of a tubular, generally bent calyx, and 

 in some of the species one of the lobes forming a large, plain, 

 and in some cases concave labellum, and in the latter ter- 

 minated with a long tail (codicil), the whole of a dusky 

 colour, and emitting a fetid odour. A. cordata, a species native 

 of the regions of the Magdalena, according to Humboldt, has a 

 large concave labellum, 4 feet in circumference, which the 

 Indian children put on their heads as caps. A. Goldieana, a 

 native of Western tropical Africa, has flowers quite as large. The 

 plant has flowered recently at Kew. In tropical America, 

 Aristolochias and other climbing plants are termed by the 

 natives " guaco," and are held in high repute as a cure for snake 

 bites and for charming snakes. This property is also said to be 

 possessed by two European species — A. longa and A. semper- 

 virens — natives of the South of Europe, and used by jugglers. 

 The Virginian Snake -root {A. serpentaria) has also a similar 



