Flora Medica

ARACKffi.Bigelow med. hot. i. t. 4. Mart, amcen. bonn. 16. f. 11. Swampsand damp shady woods in North America. (Dragon root, orIndian turnip.)Rhizoma round, flattened, its upper part tunicated like the onion, itslower and larger portion tuberous and fleshy, giving off numerous longwhite radicles in a circle from its upper edge; covered on the underside with a dark, loose, wrinkled skin. Leaves usually one or two onlong sheathing footstalks, ternate; the leaflets oval, mostly entire,acuminate, smooth, paler on the under side, and becoming glaucous asthe plant grows older, the two lateral ones somewhat rhomboidal.Scape erect, round, green or variegated with purple, invested at baseby the petioles, and their acute sheaths. Spathe large, ovate, acuminate,convoluted into a tube at bottom, but flattened and bent over atthe top, like a hood, internally various in colour, in some wholly green,in others dark purple or black, in most variegated, with pale greenishstripes on a dark ground. Spadix much shorter than the spathe, clilbshaped,rounded at the end, green, purple, black, or variegated, suddenlycontracted into a narrow neck at base, and surrounded below by thestamens or ovaries. In the barren plants, its base is covered withconical, fleshy filaments, each bearing from 2 to 4 circular anthers. Inthe fertile plants,it is invested with roundish crowded ovarieseach tipped with a stigma. Plants which are perfectly monoecious, andwhich are the least common, have stamens below the ovaries. The upperpart of the spadix withers with the spathe, while the ovaries grow intoa large compact bunch of shining scarlet berries. Violently acrid andalmost caustic jthe rhizoma when fresh is too powerful to render itsinternal exhibition safe. The acrid property extremely volatile ; easilydriven off by heat, when the rhizoma yields one-fourth of pure delicateamylaceous matter, resembling the finest arrow root, " very white,delicate and nutritive."COLOCASIA.Spathe tubular, permanent, straight or cucullate. Spadixnaked at the point, 5 at the base, $ at the apex, with rudimentaryprocesses between. Anthers connate. Ovary 1-celled.Stigma capitate, not glutinous.1282. C. esculenta Schott. meletem. 18. Arum esculentumLinn.sp.pl. 1369. Caladium esculentum Vent. Willd. sp.pl.iv. 489. (Rumph. v. t. 110. f. 1. Sloane i. t. 106. f. 1.)Hotter parts of the world in both hemispheres. (Cocoa roots,Eddoes, &c.)Stemless. Leaves peltate, cordate, ovate, entire, glaucous, green.Spadix shorter than the ovate-lanceolate spathe. The tubers andleaves are a common article of food among negroes, but they are soacrid as to prove uneatable by Europeans not accustomed to them.The boiled leaves produce a most inconvenient flow of saliva, and asense of choking, as I have experienced.TYPHONIUM.Spathe convolute at base. Spadix naked at the end ;interruptedlyunisexual at the base. Rudimentary organs between602