58 
ACORUS CALAMUS, 
Sweet Flag* 
Class HeXANDRIA. — Order MoNOGYNIA. 
Nat. Ord. PiPERiTiE, Linn. Aroideje, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Spadix cylindrical, covered with florets. 
Corolla six petals, naked. Style none. Capsule 3-celled. 
Spec. Char. Point of the Scave very long and leafy. 
The Acorus Calamus is a perennial native plant, indigenous 
also to the northern climates of Europe and India. In England, it is 
very common in many counties, and is usually found growing in 
rivers and stagnant waters, producing flowers in May and June. 
We are told it is very plentiful in the marshy land ab(»ut Norwich. 
The root grows horizontal, crooked, fibrous, and pointed, about an 
inch in thickness, externally of a greenish yellow, iniertiall\ white, 
and of a spongy texture; the leaves are long, sword-shaped, sheath- 
ing each other, and often undulated on one side ; the flowers are 
small, numerous, and produced on a spadix or conical spike at the 
edge of the leaf; there is no calyx; the corolla is composed of 
six small concave membranous petals, and appears as if truncated ; 
the stamens are six; the filaments thick, and a little longer than the 
petals, supporting double antherse ; the gerraen is gibbous, oblong, 
without a style, and terminated by a pointed stigma; the seed vessel 
is an oblong, triangular capsule, divided into three cells, cntaining 
numerous oval seeds. 
The roots of the Calamus Aroraaticus were formerly imported from 
Asia ; but our native species does not appear to be in any respect 
inferior to the foreign. The roots of the sweet flag were held in 
much estimation by ancient writers on the Materia Medica, who 
celebrated their virtues as an aromatic, and as being possessed of 
powerful medicinal properties : we are told b> Linn*us, that this 
plant is the only aromatic one indigenous to northern climates ; and 
from the writings of Dioscoridesf and Alpinus, j we learn that 
the Greeks and Arabians were well acquainted with its virtues. 
* Fig. a. represents a single petal. b. A magnified stamen. c. The pistilltma, 
d. A flower, e. The pericarp, cut open to shew the seed. 
+ Diosc. lib. i. c. 2. . 
% Alpinus, p. 141. 
