90 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF NEW PLANTS. 
Aristolochiacers. —Gynandria Hexandria. 
Aristolochia anguicida (Jacquin). A singular and very little 
known species of Birth wort, native of New Granada. Jacquin 
discovered it at Carthagena. Our collector, Mr. Purdie, sent it 
to the Royal Gardens of Kew, where it first flowered in December, 
1845. As the natives of North America employ the A. serpen- 
taria (which, M. Bose says, is one of the most active sudorifics 
known) for destroying serpents, and also for curing persons 
bitten by those reptiles, so the natives of South America (New 
Granada) employ this for similar purposes. “ The juice of the 
root,” according to Jaquin, “ mixed with the saliva by mastica¬ 
tion, renders powerless a serpent of moderate size, if one or two 
drops are put into the mouth of the creature, when it may be 
handled for several hours and put into the bosom with impunity; 
but after a time the animal recovers : a larger quantity, however, 
occasions its death.” Jacquin attributes to the odour of the root 
the faculty of driving away serpents when they approach this 
plant; and he also relates that the juice, applied to the recent 
bite of a serpent, or taken internally, infallibly cures the patient. 
It has long, slender, twining stems, with distant, pointed, heart- 
shaped leaves, having a deep sinus at the base; the peduncles 
are axillary and solitary, bearing a single flower, in shape not 
much unlike our European A. clematitis, but in colour very dif¬ 
ferent. The base of the perianth is inflated, globose, almost 
white ; the rest of the tube is infundibuliform, narrow below, 
white, spotted and reticulated with brown; the mouth dilated, 
oblique; the lip defiexed, longer than the tube, from a broad 
base gradually tapering to a blunt point, dashed, and transversely 
streaked with rich brown.— Bot. Mag. 4361. 
Orchidace^e. —Gynandria Monogynia. 
Satyrium aureum (Thunberg). This fine species of Satyrium 
is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, whence it was introduced 
a few years ago by Messrs. Young, of Epsom, in whose nursery 
it first flowered in August, 1842. Its fine, rich orange flowers, 
and the ease with which the plant is grown, and the number of 
blooms produced, render it a very desirable species for cultivators 
of hardy and half-hardy Orchids. It succeeds well in a pot of 
rough peat-soil, but the pot should be half filled with a mixture 
