246 



N. Ord. ARISTOLOCHIACE.E. Lindl. Veg. Kingd., p. 792 ; Le 

 Maout & Dec., p. 705. 



Genus Aristolochia, Linn* Duchartre in DC. Prod., xv, pt. i, 

 pp. 432498. Species over 180, found in the warmer 

 countries throughout the world. 



246. Aristolochia Serpentaria,t Linn., 8p. Plant., ed. 1, 



p. 961 (1753). 



Virginian Snakeroot. 



Syn. A. officinalis, Nees. A. sagittata, Muhl. A. hastata. Nutt. En- 

 dodeca Bartonii, Klotzsch. E. Serpentaria, Klotzsch. 



Figures, "Woodville, t. 59 j Bigelow, t 49; Barton, t. 28, copied in 

 Hayne, ix, t. 21; Steph. & Oh., t. 180; Nees, t. 143; Berg & Sch., 

 t. 25 a, 



Description. A perennial herb, with a short horizontal rhizome 

 giving off very numerous long, slender, crowded roots below. 

 Flowering stems about a foot high, branched at the base, slender, 

 cylindrical, flexuous or ziczac, pubescent, purple below. Leaves 

 few, on the upper part of the stem, alternate, stalked, without 

 stipules, two or three inches long, usually ovate-attenuate, with a 

 cordate base, sometimes narrower and oblong or even linear^ 

 entire, minutely pubescent, especially when young. Flowers 

 few, solitary, not an inch long, on rather long, filiform, flexuous 

 stalks, which come off horizontally from the axils of small scales 

 at the lower nodes of the stem, curved downwards at the ends, 

 with several distant bractlets at intervals. Perianth adherent to 

 the ovary (superior), tubular, hairy on the outside, smooth within, 

 tough, dark brownish-purple, deciduous, the tube cylindrical, 

 inflated above the ovary, then much narrowed, then again inflated, 

 and finally narrowed at the mouth, which is turned upwards, the 



* Aristolochia, a'ptoroXox/a, the classical name for A. Clematitis and A. 

 rotunda, from their supposed virtues. 



f The Serpentaria virginiana of Plukenet (1691), from its use in snake- 

 bites. 



