279 



N. Ord. ARACE^E. Le Maout & Dec., p. 831. 



Tribe Acoroidea. Lindl., Veg. K., p. 193 (N. Ord.). 



Genus Acorus,* Linn. Kunth, Enum. Plant., iii, p. 87. Species 

 2 (or more ?), natives of the northern hemisphere. 



279. Acorus Calamus,t Linn., Sp. Plant, cd. 1, p. 324 (1753). 



Sweet Flag. Cinnamon Se<l<jc. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 248; Barton, t. 30; Hayne, vi, t. 31; Steph. 

 and Church, t. 32 ; Nees, t. 24 ; Berg & Sch., t. 8 c ; Syme, E. Bot., 

 ix, t. 1391; Schnitzlein, Iconographia, t. 72 bb; Nees, Gen. PI. 

 Germ. 



Description. An herbaceous perennial with a very long, inde- 

 finite, branched rhizome immersed in the mud, with short joints 

 and large leaf-scars, cylindrical or somewhat compressed, about J 

 inch in diameter, smooth, pinkish or pale green, the leaf- scars 

 brown, white and spongy within, giving off below numerous, long 

 straight slender roots. Leaves few, distichously alternate, form- 

 ing erect tufts at the extremities of the rhizome-branches 3 to 4 

 feet or more long, about an inch wide, broader at the insertion on 

 the rhizome, tapering into a long acute point, entire, smooth, 

 yellowish green, pink at the base, strongly conduplicate and 

 equitantly sheathing below, sword-like above with the central 

 portion thick and gradually narrowing to the entire edges which 

 are usually somewhat wavy or crimped. Flowering stems 

 (scapes) one or two, each arising from the axils of the outer 

 leaves which they much resemble, compressed-triangular, solid, 

 spongy. Flowers very small, sessile, densely packed on all sides 

 of the axis so as to form a solid, cylindrical, tapering blunt spike 

 (spadix) 2 4 inches long, often somewhat curved, really termi- 

 nating the scape, but apparently lateral and projecting upwards 

 at an angle from it, the direction of the scape itself being con- 



* Acorus or Acorum, in Greek a/copoc, the classical name for the plant, 

 j- The Calamus aromaticus of the mediaeval druggists; and perhaps the 

 Q of Dioscorides (but see also no. 297). 



