246 ARISTOLOCHIA SERPENTARIA 



limb vertical, flat, obscurely 3-lobed. Stamens epigynous, filaments 

 fused with the style, anthers 6, 2 -celled, apparently sessile and 

 adnate to the under surface of the stigma, two under each of its 

 lobes, dehiscing vertically. Ovary inferior, ovoid-pyriform, 

 bluntly 6-angled, covered with short reflexed hairs, 3-celled, with 

 a double row of ovules attached to the axile placentas ; styles 

 combined into a short thick column ; stigma large, divided into 

 3 broad, flat, truncate lobes. Fruit a small dry capsule, partially 

 dehiscent septicidally, flattened above, 6-angled, 6-celled, pericarp 

 thin, papery, smooth, dark brown. Seeds several in each cell, 

 bluntly triangular, very flat, convex and somewhat warted on the 

 lower surface with the margin inflexed, hollowed on the upper 

 surface, where it is traversed across the centre by the thick, 

 white, fleshy raphe, embryo very small at the end next the hilum, 

 endosperm abundant, densely fleshy. 



Habitat. A native of the United States of America growing 

 in moist fertile woods in all except the most Northern States, 

 but not generally a very common plant. It flowers in June 

 and July, the singular blossoms being more or less buried in the 

 loose soil and dead leaves near the root ; the seeds are ripe at 

 the end of September. It was grown in an English garden so 

 far back as 1632. There is a plant in cultivation at Kew, but it 

 has not flowered there. 



The genus Endodeca was defined by Klotzsch from this species, 

 which he divided into three ; it possesses, however, no characters 

 distinguishing it from Aristolochia. 



The great variation in the form of the leaves has caused the 

 creation of several supposed species. Barton's figure above quoted 

 is the variety Bartonii of Duchartre, Endodeca Bartonii, Klotzsch, 

 Aristolochia officinalis, Nees. 



An allied species, A. reticulata, Nutt, native to the Western 

 United States, yields the Texan or Red River Snakeroot. 



A. Gray, Man. Bot. N. U. St., p. 404; Chapman, Fl. South. 

 States, p. 272; Lindl., Fl. Med., p. 343; Duchartre, in DC. 

 Prod., xv, i, p. 433 ; Klotzsch, in Monatsbericht der K. Akad., 

 Berlin, 1859, pp. 575, 600. 



