1328

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART in.

glabrous upon the upper surface; upon the under one stellately pilose,silvery, and scaly; the scales rusty, deciduous. Branches opposite.Flowers disposed in upright racemes between the firstleaves, and of half the length of these. (Nutt., Willd.,and obs.) A deciduous shrub, a native of North Ame-rica , on the borders of lakes, in the western parts ofthe state of New York, in Canada , and along the St.

Lawrence to its source, where it grows to the height 1 209of 6 ft. or 8 ft. It has been in cultivation, in Britishgardens, since 1759, but is not frequent in collections. ^The fruit is sweetish, but scarcely eatable. A plant of a

this species, in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, is a 2

thinly branched shrub, about 5 ft. high, and not striking »

in its general aspect; the plant in the Hackney arbo-

return is about the same height; one in the arboretum

at Kew is only 3 ft. high. One in the TwickenhamBotanic Garden is 4 ft. high.

CHAP. XCVIII.

OF THE HARDY AND HALF-HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THEORDER jIRISTOLOCHIA'CE,®.

Those of which we shall treat are included in the genus vfristoldchia L.,

which has the following characters : —

-4ristolo'chia L. Calyx of some other colour than green, and in colour andtexture resembling a corolla; in its lowest part connate with the ovary;inflated above this part, then tubular, and ending in an expanded border,which has 3 segments, and these are valvate in aestivation. Stamens 6, ad-hering to the style and stigmas. Style 1. Stigmas 6, radiating. Capsulewith 6 cells and numerous seeds. Embryo very minute, placed in the baseof fleshy albumen. Habit of growth, in most, twining. Wood withoutconcentric zones. Leaves alternate, undivided in most. Calyx, which isthe obvious part of the flower, yellow, brown, dark brown, and, in some,spotted on a yellow ground. (Lindley, Nat. Syst. of Sot.; Willd. Sp. PL:and observation.) Twining shrubs. The hardy species natives of NorthAmerica, and the half-hardy of Africa and the Levant. “ The most re-markable species of the genus Aristolochia are those which, in many of thetropical parts of America , excite the wonder of travellers, by the giganticsize or grotesque appearance of the flowers; such as A. cymbifera, the borderof the calyx of which resembles one of the lappets of a Norman woman’scap, and measures 7 in. or 8 in. in length (see Bot. Reg., vol. xviii-t. 1543.) and A. cordiflora and A. gigantea, the flowers of which are from15 in. to 16 in. across, and are large enough to form bonnets for the Indianchildren.” (Penny Cyc., vol. ii. p. 328.)

Genus II.

ARISTOLO'CHIA L. The Birthwort. Lin. Syst. Gynandria

Hexandria.

Identification. Schveb. Lin. Gen., No. 1383.; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 151.

Stjnompncs. Aristoloche, Fr.; Osterluzey, Gcr. ,

Derivation. Aristolbchia was the name of a plant mentioned by Dioscorides , and considered a®. 01sovereign use in the disorders incident to childbirth : it is derived from artston, best, and locn&parturition.