346 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



Fetid Symplocarpus. Swamp Cabbage. Skunk Cabbage. 



-Roof perennial , with fleshy fibres from a thick truncate rliizoma. Aerial stem none, 

 ieayes appearing after the spadix has flowered, at first orbicular-cordate, at length cor- 

 date-oval, becoming very large (often near 2 feet long, and a foot or more in width), en- 

 tire, smooth ; stipules expanding, ovate-oblong, acuminate, or often spatulate. Sj^alhe 

 subsessile, spotted with purplish-brown, green, and yellow. Spaclix about an inch in diam- 

 eter, on a short thick peduncle. Flowers compact, appearing tessellated. Seimis dark- 

 brown, fleshy, cuneate, truncate, the apex and margins inflected. Anthers slightly ex- 

 serted. (S^f/ie projecting a little above the sepals. Fruit fleshy, coalesced with the base 

 of the persistent sepals, and imbedded in the surface of the receptacle. Seeds globose, 

 about the size of a common garden pea. 



Wet, low grounds : Canada to Virginia. Fl. Feb. - March. Fr. Sept. 



Ohs. This plant — so readily known by its skunk-like odor, when 

 wounded — is quite common in wet meadows, and other swampy low 

 grounds in the middle and northern States. It is a worthless weed,— 

 and its bunches of large leaves are sufficiently unsightly to command the 

 attention of the neat farmer. 



3. AC'OKUS, L. Sweet Flag. 



[Gr. a, privative, and kore, the pupil of the eye ; a supposed remedy for sore eyes.] 



Flowers perfect, without a proper spathe, crowded on a sessile sub-cylin- 

 dric spadix which emerges from the side of a scape which closely re- 

 sembles the leaves. Sepals 6, concave. Stamens 6, inserted on the base 

 of the sepals ; anthers reniform 1-celled, transversely dehiscent. Ovary 

 trigonous, 3-celled ; ovules numerous, pendulous ; stigma sessile, minute. 

 Fruit somewhat baccate, indehiscent. Seeds few, inverted, albuminous, 

 nestling in a gelatinous matter. 



1. A. Caramus, L. Scape leaf-like, extending much above the lateral 

 spadix. 



Reed Acorus. Calamus. Sweet Flag. 



Fr. Acore odorant. Germ. Der Kalamus. Span. Acoro Calamo. 



Eoot perennial, in coarse verticillate fibres from a horizontal creeping pungently aro- 

 matic rliizoma. Aerial stem none. Leaves radical, ensiform-linear, 2-3 feet long, and 

 half an inch to near an inch wide, smooth. Scape as long as the leaves and much re- 

 sembling them, somewhat triangular below the spadix. Spadix 2-3 inches long, terete, 

 tapering to an obtuse point. Sepals greenish, cuneate-oblong, keeled, with scarious 

 margins. 



Swampy meadows, about springs, &c. Fl. May -June. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. A native of Europe and Asia as well as some parts of this 

 country. The whole plant is warmly aromatic — especially the creeping 

 rhizoma ; and that subterraneous portion is deservedly popular for its 

 medicinal virtues. I have seen some wet meadows, however, in which 

 the plant had got possession to such an extent as to become something 

 of a nuisance, — and a difficult one to get rid of. It would be well, 

 therefore, in introducing it, to plant it only in circumscribed swamps. 



