THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
O F 
PHARMACY. 
APRIL., 1836, 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. I.— ON SYMPLOCARPUS FGETIDUS. By Joseph M. Turner. 
{Extract from Inaugural Thesis.) 
Nat. Ord. Aroide^:. 
Sex. Syst. Tetrandia Monogynia. 
Symplocarpus. Spatha, ventricose-ovate, acuminate. Spadix round- 
ish, covered with hermaphrodite flowers. Calyx, deeply four-parted, per- 
sistent, segments cucullate, truncate, becoming thick and spongy. Pe- 
tals, none. Style pyramidal, four-sided ; stigma, simple, minute. Seeds, 
solitary, immersed in the spongy receptacle. — Nuttall. 
S.foetidus. Root verticillately fibrous, truncate. Leaves smooth and green, 
ovate-cordate, enlarging, protected by large, glaucous, spathulate-lingui- 
form, veinless bractes. Spatha ovoid, roundish, cucullate, obliquely acu- 
minate, point coarctate, plaited, involutely auriculate at base, thick and 
spongy, livid purple, blotched and spotted with pale green. Spadix pe- 
dunculate, simple, almost spherical. Bractes, none. Flowers tesselately 
imbricate, adnate. Calyx, four-parted, divided to the base, segments 
cucullate, compressed at the apex, emarginated, at length becoming very 
thick. Petals, none. Stamina, four, opposite the divisions of the calyx ; 
filaments subulate flat; anthers exserted, short, oblong-oval, two-celled ; 
Germ, immersed, one-seeded. Seed naked, large, round, inclosed in the 
common receptacle. Corculum small, involute, erect, umbilicately at- 
tached to a large, solid, carneous perisperm. — Nuttall. 
Synon. Arum Jlmericanum betse folio. Catesb. Carol. 
Calla aqudtilis odore alii vehemente praedita. Gron. Virg. 186. 
Dracontium foetidum. Lin. Sp. PI. 1372. Willd. Sp. PI. 2. p. 288, &c. 
VOL. II. NO. I. 1 
