Flora Medica

to be a valuable remedy in asthma, and to be used in hemorrhoids ;butas this speciesJs not found in India some other plant was probably intended.SYMPLOCARPUS.Spathe cucullate. Spadix short, covered with tetrandrous floscules.Ovaries 1-celled, with 1 ovule in each ; stigma minute.Berries consolidated. Seeds without albumen.1285. S. fcetidus Nutt. gen.i. 105. Barton veg. mat. med.i. 191. Schott. meletem. 22. Pothos fretidat. 10. Torreyfl.Michx. bor. amer. ii. 186. Bot. Mag.t. 836. Dracontiumfoetidum Linn. sp. pi. 1372. Ictodes fcetidus Bigelow med.bot. ii. t. 24. Swamps and meadows in the United States.(Skunk weed, Skunk Cabbage.)Tuber large, abrupt, with numerous, crowded, fleshy fibres. Spathepraecocious, ovate, turgid, various in width, cucullate, spotted and sometimesnearly covered with dull brownish purple, the top acuminate andincurved, the edges folded inwards, auriculate at base, and at lengthcoalescing. Spadix oval, on a short peduncle, covered with perfecttetrandrous flowers, and of the same colour with the spathe. Sepals 4,fleshy, wedge-shaped, truncate, the top and edges inflected. Stamens4, opposite the sepals, with subulate filaments equal in length to thecalyx, and oblong 4-celled anthers. Style 4-sided, tapering; stigmaminute, pubescent ; ovary roundish, concealed within the spadix. Afterthe spathe decays, the spadix continues to grow, and with it every partof the flowers except the anthers. When the fruit is ripe, the spadixhas attained many times its original dimensions, while the calyx, filamentsand styleare larger, very prominent and separated from each other.Within the spadix at the base of each style is a round, fleshy seed, aslarge as a pea, white, tinged with green and purple, invested with aseparate membranous coat, and with a prominent embryo situated in adepression at top. Leaves spring up sometime after the flowers, numerous,large, crowded, oblong heart-shaped, acute, smooth, withnumerous fleshy veins of a pale colour ;on long channelled petioles,furnished with large oblong sheaths. This plant emits a powerfuloffensive odour ; its tubers are acrid ; but when dried and powdered areantispasmodic.An excellent remedy in asthma, catarrh and chroniccoughs. Also employed with success in hysteric paroxysms, dropsy,rheumatism, and even epilepsy.1286. The rhizomata of Calla palustris Linn., although acrid andcaustic in the highest degree, are according to Linnaeus made into akind of bread in high estimation called " Missebroed " in Lapland. Thisis performed by drying and grinding the roots, afterwards boiling andmacerating them till they are deprived of their acrimony, when they arebaked like other farinaceous substances.HOMALOMENA.Spathe gaping, afterwards closing up. Spadix completelycovered, hermaphrodite at the base, male at the upper end.Anthers sessile, opening by terminal pores. Ovaries 3-celled ;ovules numerous ; stigma trifid, concave.604