416 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



perfumes. The bastard toadflax (Comandra umbellata) of our northern woods 

 is parasitic upon the roots of flowering plants. The family Balanophoraceae 

 consists of chlorophylless parasitic plants with twining or acaulescent stems, 

 and is native in tropical woods and savannas of Java, India and Australia. 



ARISTOLOCHIALES 



Plants with twining or acaulescent stems; leaves cordate or reniform; 

 flowers perfect; calyx inferior, the tube adnata to the ovary or partly so; 

 corolla none; ovary generally 6-celled. There are only three families, one of 

 which occurs in North America. The Aristolochiaceae includes the wild ginger 

 of the North (Asarum canadense) which is more or less purgative and prob- 

 ably also to be regarded as suspicious; its rhizome furnishing the. substance 

 asarin and a volatile oil which is used in perfumery; the A. europaeum, listed 

 by Lehmann as poisonous because of its purgative action and blistering proper- 



Fig. 196. Southern Mistletoe (.Phora- 

 dendron flavescens). The berries of this 

 plant are said to be poisonous. (W. S. 

 Dudgeon.) 



