222 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



strongly antispasmodic, also expectorant ; useful in asthmatic 

 affections, but unsafe as a medicine. Its acrid quality produces 

 very unpleasant sensations in the mouth. Bigelow's " Medical 

 Botany." 



Calla. L. 19. 12. 



Spathe flattish ; spadix covered with flowers ; berry many- 

 seeded. Pliny named some plant Calla, perhaps of this family, 

 probably from its beauty. 



C. palustris. L. Water Arum. A singular and rather 

 beautiful plant. Its creeping roots, scarcely passing under the 

 surface of the sphagnous swamps in which it delights, send up 

 foot-stalks bearing a single mass of white flowers, which are sur- 

 rounded in their rudimentary state with a strong envelope or 

 spathe of a fine white color, and soft texture on the inside, and 

 forming a protection to the young flowers. Roots acrid ; but they 

 lose this property by drying or boiling, so that they were used, 

 according to Linnaeus, by the Laplanders to form a sort of bread. 

 Indigenous also to the northern parts of Europe. 



C. JEthiopica. W. A larger and taller plant, with its glossy 

 and shining deep-green leaves, raised with great care in green- 

 houses and parlours, will recall the thoughts to the other humble 

 native of our country, and of Europe. The exotic is from the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



Acorus. L. 6. 1. 



Supposed to relieve diseases of the eye, and hence its name 

 from the Greek. Spadix cylindric, covered with flowers ; peri- 

 anth 6-petalled, naked ; ovary 1. 



A. calamus. L. Sweet Flag. The meaning of Calamus is 

 a reed, and the name is given to this plant from its resemblance to 

 the genus Calamus. Common beside slow streams and in wet 

 grounds. Its sword-shaped leaves ; its solitary flower-stem or 

 spadix, projecting from a leaf, and aromatic and pleasant to the taste 

 when young ; its zigzag roots with their numerous fibres, aromatic 



