WILD FLOWERS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 
solitary, purplish-green, drooping flower between 2 kidney-shaped or roundly heart-shaped leaves. 
The flower is £ inch long, or a shade longer, and the perianth is divided halfway down into 
3 broad lobes with turned-back points ; the fruit is somewhat fleshy and decays to free the seeds. 
The leaves of this species are dried and powdered and form part of a snuff preparation useful 
in colds. [. Plate 43. 
Very rare. In woods and on shady banks, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, Halifax and Settle in 
Yorkshire, in Lancashire, and Westmorland. May — June. Perennial. 
II. *BIRTHWORT. (ARISTOLOCHIA. Linn.) — Flowers in clusters in the axils of the leaves. 
Perianth tubular, often curved, swollen at the base, extending on one side into a limb which 
is entire or lobed, united at the base with the seedcase ; stamens 6, inserted on the top of the 
seedcase (epigynous) but with the filaments so adhering to the short thick style as to make the 
anthers appear sessile on the style ; carpels 6, united into a seedcase and one short thick style 
which is crowned with 6 spreading stigmas ; fruit a leathery capsule, 6-celled, many-seeded, opening 
by 6 valves. Erect or climbing herbs or shrubs with alternate broad leaves, often heart-shaped 
(cordate) or kidney-shaped (reniform) or spear-shaped (hastate). 
*BirthWOrt. (Aristolochia Clematltis. Linn.) — As just described. Not a native, 
though apparently established in a few stations in England. The flowers are 1 inch or more long, 
yellow, in clusters of 4-8 together on short stalks all starting from the same point in the axils of 
the leaves ; the tubular perianth is extended on one side into an entire oval-pointed limb ; the stem 
is \\-2 feet high, stout, erect, and unbranched ; the leaves are large, stalked, broadly heart-shaped, 
smooth, yellowish-green above and with a bluish bloom underneath ; and the root is creeping. 
[ Plate 43. 
A native of southern Europe. Among ruins in a few stations in the south and east of England. 
June — September. Perennial. 
