ORONTIACEiE. 619 



Herbaceous plants with broad entire or deeply divided leaves, sometimes, 

 however, ensiform and equitant. Some are stemless, others are parasitic, 

 and some are aquatic. They principally are tropical, but many are found in 

 more temperate regions, or even in cold climates. Their properties are vari- 

 ous, but the most characteristic quality is acridity. They are divided into 

 three tribes. 



Tribe 1. Calleje. — Flowers naked. Ovules erect. 



Most of these are acrid in a fresh state ; thus the leaves of Monstera per- 

 tusa are employed by the natives of Demerara as vesicatories and rubefa- 

 cients in cases of dropsy. The rhizomes of Calla palustris, a native of the 

 northern parts of Europe and North America, are very acrid and caustic, but 

 according to Linnseus (Fl. Lappon.), by drying, grinding and washing, 

 furnish a very palatable bread. In a fresh state it is said to be powerfully 

 diaphoretic in small doses. The fruit of Scindapsis officifialis is said by 

 Roxburgh (Fl. Ind. i. 431), to be an article in much estimation in the Hindoo 

 Materia Medica, and sold in dried transverse pieces under the name of 

 " Guj-puppul." 



Tribe 2. Orontice. — Flowers with a regular perianth. Leaves entire, palmate, or 

 pinnate, ovules pendulous. 



Several species of this group are endowed with considerable power. Po- 

 ttos cannceformis, of Cumana, is said by Kunth to possess the delicate Odour 

 of Vanilla, and to be employed to aromatise tobacco by the natives (Nov. 

 Gen. i. 76). P. scandens is used in India as a remedy in putrid fevers. 

 Dracontium polyphyllum has a most fetid smell when in flower, capable of 

 causing vertigo, nausea and vomiting ; in Guiana the corm is considered an 

 antidote to the bites of venomous snakes, and Ainslie states (Med. Ind. ii. 

 464), that it is deemed antispasmodic and valuable in asthma ; in the Society 

 Islands it is said to be used as an emmenagogue, and Martius speaks of it as 

 a caustic. The seeds of our native Orontium aquaticum formed an article 

 of food with the Indians, for although acrid when fresh, they become mild 

 and nutritive by boiling ; this is also the case with the roots. 



Symplocarptjs. — Salisbury. 



Spathe cucullate. Spadix short, covered with tetrandrous floscules. Ovaries 1-celled, 

 with a solitary ovule in each ; stigma very small. Berries consolidated. Seeds exalbu- 

 minous. 



S. fcetidus, Nuttall. — Tuber large, abrupt, with numerous verticillate, fleshy fibres. 

 Leaves smooth, green, ovate-cordate, with large, glaucous, spatulate-linguiform bracts. 

 Spathe ovoid, roundish, cucullate, obliquely acuminate, spotted and sometimes almost 

 covered with purplish blotches. Spadix pedunculate, simple, almost spherical. Flowers 

 tessellately imbricate, adnate. Calyx of 4 fleshy, cuneate, truncate sepals, at length be- 

 coming very thick. Petals none. Stamens 4, opposite the sepals ; filaments subulate ; 

 anthers exserted, oblong, 2-celled. Ovary roundish, immersed ; style 4-sided, tapering ; 

 stigma minute. Seeds naked, large, round, enclosed in the common receptacle. Embryo 

 prominent, umbilicately attached to a large, solid perisperm. 



Nuttall, Gen. i. 105; Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. i. 123, t. 10; Lindley, 

 Fl. Med. 604; Dracontium fxtidum, Linn., Sp. PI. 1372; Pothos foetida, 

 Hort. Kew. iii. 319; Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 186; Ictodesfastidus, Bige- 

 low, Med. Bot.M. t. 24. 



Common Names. — Skunk Cabbage ; Polecat Weed, &c. 



