90 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
from the style; anthers free from the style. Styles 6, free or united 
into one, in the latter case with 6 radiating stigmas. Fruit subcoriaceous 
or somewhat fleshy, bursting irregularly, crowned by the persistent 
perianth. 
Stemless herbs with creeping rootstocks bearing a few reniform 
deltoid and cordate leaves on rather long stalks and a rather large 
solitary flower on a short scape. 
Dr. Mayne gives the following derivation for the name of this genus of plant— 
“4 (a), negative, calpw (sairo), I adorn, because it was not introduced into the ancient 
chaplets or wreaths for the head.” 
SPECIES L-ASARUM EUROPAZUM. Lin. 
Prats MCCXLIX. 
Reich Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCLXVIU. Fig. 1339. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 450. 
Rootstock creeping; stems very short, each producing 2 subopposite 
leaves. Leaves on long petioles, transverse or roundish reniform, deeply 
cordate, obtuse or subobtuse, subcoriaceous, subglabrous on the veins 
and petiole. Flowers terminal between the 2 leaves. Peduncle much 
shorter than the petioles, recurved. Perianth campanulate, with 3 
thick ovate segments with reflexed points. Filaments free from the 
style. Style single, with a 6-lobed stigma. 
In woods and among brushwood. Very rare. Perhaps not truly 
native, at least in many of its stations, though it is probably so near 
Salisbury, Wilts; Halifax, and near Settle, Yorkshire; Burnley, Lan- 
cashire; and in Westmoreland. 
England, [Scotland. ] Perennial. Spring, early Summer. 
Rootstock extensively creeping, fleshy, producing numerous stems 
rarely above 1 or 2 inches high, which at the apex produce a pair of 
leaves with petioles 2 to 5 inches long, lamine 2 to 34 inches across. 
Peduncle % to 1 inch long, and, as well as the perianth, woolly. 
Perianth about } to $ inch long, lurid purple, tinged with green on 
the outside, brighter purple inside the segments. Filaments produced 
into a point beyond the anthers. Fruit subglobular-ovoid, crowned 
by the perianth segments, indehiscent. Leaves dark shining green, 
paler beneath, reclinate in vernation. 
Asarabacca. 
French, Asaret d’Durope. German, Buropiische Haselwurz. 
This plant has had a reputation from time immemorial as a cathartic, emetic, and 
irritant, It was in use among the Greeks, by whom it was called “Acapov. Under 
the name of Asarabacca it was largely employed by the older physicians, but is now 
