DESCRIPTION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
93 
Represented by a spathe, surrounding the spadix; flowers 
naked, i. e., without perianth. Spathe convolute below, in- 
■curved-hooded at the ovate-lanceolate, pointed summit. 
Spadix mostly dioecious, club-shaped, obtuse, much shorter 
than the spathe. Corm turnip-shaped, wrinkled, farinaceous, 
with an intensely acrid juice ; spathe, with the petioles and 
sheets, green or often variegated with dark purple and 
whitish stripes or spots. Rich, damp woodlands; plentiful 
everywhere. April-May. Collect the corm in summer. 
Arum Dracontium, Schott. Dragon Root. Stouter than the 
former. Leaf usually solitary, pedately divided into 7-11 
oblong-lanceolate pointed leaflets; spadix often androgynous, 
tapering to a long and slender point beyond the oblong and 
convolute-pointed, greenish spathe. Corms clustered ; petiole 
1-2° long, much longer than the peduncle. FI. March- 
April. Collect the corms with the former. 
Symplocarpus fcetidus, Salisb. Skunk-cabbage. Perennial herb, 
diffusing a penetrant, disagreeable odor. The nearly sessile 
spathes which barely rise out of the ground, precede in early 
spring, February or March, the at length large and broad, en- 
tire, veiny leaves, which are ovate, cordate 1-2° long, short- 
petioled ; spathe spotted and striped with purple and yel- 
lowiish-green, ovate, incurved ; fruit (in autumn), 2-3' in 
diameter, in decay shedding the bulblet-like seeds, which are 
4-6" long. FI. April. The corm collected in autumn. 
Mountain bogs, East Tennessee. 
Acorus Calamus, L. Sweet Flag. Calamus. Pungent aro- 
matic plants, especially the thick creeping rootstocks (cal- 
amus of the shops), which send up 2-edged, sword-like leaves, 
and scapes somewhat like them, bearing the spadix on one 
edge ; the upper and more foliaceous prolongation some- 
times considered as a kind of open spathe. Along creeks 
and ponds; rare in this State according to my own expe- 
rience. The rhizome, stripped of rootlets and the epidermis 
peeled off. 
