2 Orontium aquaticum. 



boge-yelloWj bearing about sixty flowers, of an unpleasant heavy 

 odour. Germ angular, depressed, greenish. Stamens short, yel- 

 low. Seeds viviparous, sprouting as soon as they fall on the mud or 

 in the water, generally four in number, and situated under the broad 

 flower scales which are most conspicuous on the lowest flowers of 

 the spadix. Filaments also short, flat, diverging from the exterior 

 margin of the germ. Style absent. Stigma also wanting, or discerni- 

 ble only in the form of a minute puncture which rises to a more 

 conspicuous and hard circular base, as the inflorescence advances. 

 Leaves sheathing each other by their petioles, lanceolate-ellipti- 

 cal, terminating abruptly in an acute point. Costa very thick and 

 succulent. Upper disk deep duck-green, lower bluish, sometimes 

 yellowish-green, glabrous, and shining. Petioles cylindrical. Every 

 part of the plant shining except the upper disk of the leaves and 

 spadix. Younger leaves closely convoluted and proceeding from 

 the sheathing bosom of the older ones. During the flowering state 

 the leaves seldom exceed six or eight inches in length, but after the 

 plant is in fruit, they attain near twelve inches. Grows on the 

 marshy borders of tide-water rivers and creeks, and on the lutu- 

 lent margins of ditches and ponds which the tide reaches, through- 

 out the union, flowering in April and May. Pursh observed a va- 

 riety with almost linear leaves, in the salt marshes near New York. 



The Indians of North America are said to have roasted the roots 

 of this plant, and eaten them as an article of food. In their uncooked 

 2 



