BIRTHWORT FAMILY 



(Aristolochiaceoi) 



Perennial herbs or twining shrubs with more or less heart- 

 shaped leaves. Flowers without petals, the 3-lobed calyx 

 corolla-like. Stamens 6 to 12, attached to the pistil. 



WILD GINGER (Asarum caudatum, Lindl.). Flowers on 

 slender footstalks, brownish, bell-shaped, the three divisions 

 extended into long tails. Leaves large, long-petioled, green 

 and kidney-shaped, these and the flowers arising from root- 

 stocks creeping at the surface of the ground. Blooming in 

 the spring in damp woodlands from Monterey Bay to British 

 Columbia. Frequent in the redwood belt. 



The delightful aromatic fragrance of the crushed leaves 

 and of the root suggesting ginger, makes it easy of identification 

 even when out of flower, and justifies the common name. It 

 is in no way related to the true ginger, and I find no record 

 that the Indians ever found use for this one. The flowers are 

 borne close to the ground. 



In the Sierra Nevada another species occurs, A. Hartwegi, 

 Wats., with smaller but similar flowers and leaves mottled 

 with white. 



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