476 
cm. orontiacejE. 
IA 
corns. 
from British specimens. Spatha large, convolute; its margins in- 
curved. Above the carpels, on the spadix, is a ring or circle of 
2-celled, sessile anthers, and above them another ring of apparently 
imperfect carpels. The extremity of the spadix is purplish. Berries 
bright scarlet, persistent during winter, after the leaves and spadix 
have decayed, crowded into a short spike. 
Ord. CIII. OKONTIACEiE E. Brown : Lindl. 
Flowers perfect, crowded on a simple thick spadix, usually 
furnished with a spatha. Perianth of 4 — 8 scales. Stamens 
hypogynous or pengynous, of the same number as the scales of 
the perianth. Filaments flattened or filiform. Anthers 2-celled, 
opening longitudinally or transversely. Ovary free, with 1 or 
more cells. Ovules erect or pendulous. Style wanting or subu- 
late. Stigma capitate. Fruit baccate. Embryo slit on one 
side, usually in the axis of albumen. — Herbaceous plants, with 
broad, entire or deeply divided, never floating leaves which are 
sometimes sword-shuped and equitant. 
1. A'coros Linn. Sweet-Flag. 
Flowers arranged upon a sessile spadix. Spatha a mere con- 
tinuation of the scape and similar to the leaves (not convolute). 
Perianth of 6 persistent scales. Ovary 3-celled. Stigma ses- 
sile. Fruit baccate, indehiscent, few-seeded. — Name: asopog, 
probably from a, out , and k opiov, or Kopi), the pupil of the eye ; 
the diseases of which it was supposed to remove. 
1. A. Calamus L. (commoir S.) : scape ancipitate prolonged 
into a leaf above the spadix. E. B. t. 356. 
Watery places on the banks of rivers, in the middle and south- 
east of England, abundant in Norfolk and Suffolk. Rare if truly 
indigenous in Scotland ; water of Girvan, near the town, and bog of 
Culzean near Maybole, Ayrshire ; Castle Semple Loch, Renfrew- 
shire. 11. 6. — Rhizome aromatic. Scape, like the leaves, ensiform- 
ancipitate. 
ff Submerged or floating plants. (Ord. CIV. CV.) 
Ord. CIV. FISTIACEHD Hick. 
Perianth 0. Flowers 2, monoecious, enclosed in a spatha, but 
not borne on a spadix. — Sterile fl. solitary. Stamens 1 — 2 
and distinct, or the filaments united, thick, and bearing 3 — 8 
anthers. — Fertile fl. solitary. Ovary 1-celled, with 1 or more 
erect or horizontal ovules. Style short. Stigma simple. Fruit 
somewhat membranous and indehiscent, or bursting trans- 
versely, or baccate, 1- or more-seeded. Seeds with a coria- 
ceous thick ribbed skin, and a thickened indurated foramen. 
