12 ENGLISH BOTANT, 



grows abundantly, it is still used by the peasantry as a remedy for ague. Dr. Wither- 

 ing tells us that the powder of the roots has cured agues when Pcnivian bark has 

 failed. Dr. Barton says his experience enables him to state " that in dyspeptic 

 flatulence, and other disorders of the stomach, it merits the attention of the physician." 

 Chewed, and the juice only swallowed, it is a pleasant remedy for indigestion, and by 

 stimulating the salivary glands is a remedy for toothache. 



The sweet flag was undoubtedly known to the Greeks, and was the citopoc of 

 Dioscorides, and probably the KciXoftog iivpt4"'^og of Hippocrates and the ica'\a/joc of 

 Theophrastus. It must not, however, be confounded ■svith the Calamus aromaticits, 

 which, according to Royle, was a species of grass. The tonic medicine known as 

 Stockton bitter, in much esteem in some parts of England, is formed from the root of 

 this plant and that of Gentiana canqjestri^. For medicinal purposes the rhizomes are 

 cut up into pieces four or five inches long, and dried. The roots of the yellow iris 

 are often sold for it in the shops. It is also candied, and in Turkey is consumed as a 

 swettmcat in this form. It is largely used by perfumers as an ingredient in tooth 

 powder, and to give scent to hair powder. Infused in liquids it imparts an ai'omatic 

 taste and agreeable odour. Professor Johnston tells us, in his " Chemistry of Common 

 Life," that it is used to give taste and fragrance to certain varieties of beer, and also 

 to improve the flavour of gin. It is sent up to the London market chiefly from 

 Norfolk, and as much as 40L is sometimes given for the year's crop of a single acre of 

 river-side land, on which it naturally grows. The leaves were used at one time 

 largely for strewing the floors of churches, and were esteemed on account of the 

 pleasant scent they give out when trodden on. Till very lately Norwich Cathedral 

 was stre^vn with these rushes on certain festival occasions — a remnant of the old 

 practice of covering all floors with rushes or boughs of trees. 



Tribe II.— ARE^. 



Flowers unisexual, androgynous — i.e. the male and female on the 

 same spadix, without any perianth. Spadix surrounded by a spathe, 

 which is convolute or tubular at the base. 



GENUS II.— K RUM. Linn. 



Spathe convolute at the base. Spadix free, cylindrical, naked and 

 more or less clubshaped at the apex, -^vith collars of unisexual flowers 

 reduced to stamens and pistils. Male flowers uppermost, with a ring of 

 appendiculate tubercles (abortive ovaries?) above them, and usually 

 another ring of similar tubercles between the male and female flowers ; 

 anthers subsessile, free or united in pairs, 2-lobed, 1- or 2-celled. 

 Ovaries 1-celled, Avith several ovules; style short or none; stigma 

 tuftlike or peltate. Fruit fleshy, a 1-celled berry, with 1 or several 

 seeds. Seeds subglobular, with a coriaceous reticulated testa; embryo 

 in the axis of the albumen, radicle pointing away from the hilum. 



Perennial stemless plants, with cormo-tuberous rhizomes and stalked 

 cordate-sasittate or liastatc-sagittate leaves, with reticulate venation. 



