2 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
Pathos foetida. Ait. Hort. Kew. 3. p. 319. Pursh. Flor, Am. Bot, 2. 
p. 398, &c. 
Pothos putorii. B. S. Barton. Fl. Virg. Gron. 
Symplocarpus fcetidus. Salisbury. Nuttall. Gen. 1. p. 107. Barton. 
Mat. Med. U. S. 1. p. 123. Beck. Bot. Northern and Mid. States, 
382, &c. 
Modes fostidus. Bigelow. Mat. Med.ii. 41. 
Icon. Thornton illus. Catesb. Carol. 2. t. 71. Bot. Mag. 836. Bar- 
ton. Mat. Med. U. S. 1. t. 10. 
Common names. Skunk cabbage. Skunk weed. Polecat weed. Rich 
weed. Itch weed. 
Pharm. Dracontium. U. S. Pharm. 
Offic. Radix. 
Description.— Symplocarpus is an indigenous, perennial 
plant, growing very abundantly throughout all the northern 
section of the United States, in swamps, low meadow grounds, 
and on the borders of rivulets, delighting greatly in the shade 
and moisture. 
It has caused no little confusion among botanists to arrange 
this plant, by some being considered as belonging to the genus 
Pothos, and by others, to Dracontium, but by most American 
botanists it has been erected into a new genus, which Mr. 
Nuttall calls Symplocarpus, after Salisbury. 
This singular plant flowers very early in the season, and 
may be found as early as February. The flowers are arranged 
in a globose receptacle, and enveloped in a spathe, beautifully 
speckled with red, purple, blue, green and yellow; which 
completely hides the flowers from the inattentive observer. 
It may be easily recognized after flowering, by its fine 
large, bright green leaves, which being all radical, resemble 
some species of cabbage, at distant view; and also by its very 
rank and offensive smell when broken, which resembles the 
odour of garlic and assafoetida combined; or, as its vulgar 
name would indicate, that, offensive animal, the skunk. 
All parts of the plant are strongly imbued with this rank 
odour; but the roots and seeds only are used in medicine. 
The root, as generally seen in the shops, consists of the 
caudex and fibres; the former, when whole, of a cylindrical 
form, from two to six inches in length, and from one to one 
