castles in the Lowlands of Scotland. LIGHTFOOT, in Fl. Scot.-Abundant in woods at Collon, in Ireland. Dr. WADE, in Mackay's Catal.

Perennial. Flowers from July to September.

Root somewhat woody, fibrous. Whole plant smooth, tender, and brittle, with a milkly, bitter juice. Stem from 1 to 2 or 3 feet high, upright, slender, round, hollow, leafy, simple below, somewhat zigzag (flexuose) towards the top, glaucous and purplish. Leaves runcinate (cut into several transverse segments which point backwards), toothed, clasping the stem at the base; lower segments smallest, terminal one large, somewhat triangular, toothed, and very much resembling the leaves on the creeping stems of ivy; their under side is often more or less purple. Root-leaves stalked. Panicle very much branched, and singularly divaricated (spreading widely from each other) in all directions. Floral-leaves (bracteas) small, egg-shaped, pointed. Flowers upright, bright yellow. Outer Calyx of 3 egg-shaped, or spear-shaped scales; the inner of 5 strapshaped, purplish leaflets, which are membranous at the edges. Seeds inversely egg-shaped, striated, black. Seed-down raised on a short stalk (pedicle) as the seed ripens.

The Order Composite, to which the present plant belongs, is one of the most extensive, most natural, and best defined in the vegetable kingdom. It is composed of Herbaceous plants and shrubs, with alternate (rarely opposite) leaves. Their flowers (called florets), which are generally small, are collected into dense heads, called capitula, or calathidia, which are hemispherical, globular, and more or less elongated. Each head, or capitulum, is composed of a common receptacle; an involucrum which surrounds the capitulum, and which is composed of scales, the form, number, and disposition of which vary in different genera; and small scales or hairs, which are frequently found on the receptacle at the base of each flower, and called palea of the receptacle. The flowers which form the capitula, are of two kinds, either funnel-shaped, with 4 or 5 regular lobes, when they are called florets (flosculi); or strap-shaped, when they are called semiflorets (semiflosculi); sometimes the capitula are composed exclusively of florets (Flosculosa), sometimes exclusively of semiflorets (semiflosculosa), and sometimes their centre, or disk, is occupied by florets, and their circumference, or ray, by semiflorets (Radiata). Each flower presents the following organization. The Calyx which is adherent to the ovary, and undistinguishable from it, has its limb entire, membranous, toothed, and formed of scales, hairs, or feathers, and called pappus. The Corolla of one petal, regular or irregular; five Stamens, with distinct filaments, and united Anthers, which form a tube, through which passes the simple Style, terminated by a bifid Stigma.

The fruit is a small, indehiscent, dry pericarpium, crowned with the limb of the calyx. Seed solitary, erect; embryo with a taper, inferior radicle; albumen none.- -See Richard's Elem. of Bot. and Lind. Syn. of the British Flora.

CM Se

IR.del.

ARISTOLO'CHIA*.

Linnean Class and Order. GYNA'NDRIA, HEXA'NDRIA.

Natural Order. ARISTOLO'CHIE. Juss.-Lind. Syn. p. 224.Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. p. 72.-Rich. by Macgillv. p. 418.

GEN. CHAR. Calyx (Corolla of Linn.) superior, of one leaf, tubular, coloured, tumid, and nearly globose at the base, the mouth dilated on one side, and lengthened out into a strap-shaped lobe. Corolla none. Filaments none. Anthers six, sessile, and inserted round the base of the style; vertical, each of two oblong, separated, parallel, bivalve cells. Germen inferior, oblong, angular. Style scarcely any. Stigma nearly globular, with 6 deep lobes; the summit concave. Capsule large, 6-angled, and 6-celled. Seeds many in each cell, flat, horizontal, lying over each other, triangular, with a dilated or thickened margin.-The only Genus in Gynandria Hexandria.

One species British.

ARISTOLO'CHIA CLEMATITIS.

Common Birthwort.

SPEC. CHAR. Stem upright. Leaves heart-shaped, flowers crowded, upright, mouth of the Calyx dilated on one side.

Eng. Bot. t. 398.-Hook. Fl. Lond. t. 149.-Woodv. Med. Bot. t. 238.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. iii. p. 947.-Eng. Fl. v. iv. p. 53.—With. (7th ed.) v. ii. p. 462.Lind. Syn. p. 225.-Hook. Br. Fl. p. 381.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 112.-Purt. Mid. Fl. v. ii. p. 430. v. iii. p. 380.-Relh. Fl. Cant. p. 368.-Walk. Fl. of Oxf. p. 260.-Aristolochia Saracenica, Johnson's Gerarde, 847.

LOCALITIES.-In woods, thickets, pastures, &c. and especially among the ruins of Nunneries.-Very rare.-Near the walls of Godstow Nunnery. Dr. SIBTHORP.-Near Kencott, Oxon. Rev. Dr. GOOD ENOUGH, in With. Arr.Garden Ground, at Sir Alexander Croke's, Studley Priory. Rev. R. WALKER, in Fl. of Oxf.-In a hedge near Windsor. Mr. GOTOBED, in Bot. Guide.-At Chaddesley, near Kidderminster. Miss M. A. RAWLINS, in Purt. Midl. Fl.At Milton, and Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire. Rev. R. RELHAN, in Fl. Cant. -In a wood two miles from Thorndon, Essex. BLACKSTONE, in With. Arr.Near Maidstone. HUDSON. Sturston, Suffolk. Mr. WOODWARD.-Among the ruins of Carrow Abbey, Norwich. Rev. C. SUTTON, in Bot. Guide.

Perennial.-Flowers in July and August.

Root creeping, long, and slender, increasing very fast, and rendering the plant difficult of extirpation. Stem 2 or 3 feet high, upright, simple, round, striated, leafy, somewhat zigzag, especially in the upper part; not climbing. Leaves rather coriaceous (leathery), alternate, heart-shaped, with a wide space at the base, entire, blunt, shining above; pale green, smooth, and veiny beneath, with pedate (bird-footed) ribs. Stipulas none. Leaf-stalks nearly as long as the leaves. Flowers several together, from the bosom of each leaf, on simple stalks, upright, or hanging down, pale yellow, or buffcoloured, scentless. Capsule large, pendulous, somewhat inversely

Fig. 1. Germen, Stamens, and Stigma, magnified.-Fig. 2. The summit of the Stigma. Fig. 3. Unripe Capsule, natural size.-Fig. 4. Transverse section of the same.-Fig. 5. A Seed.

*From Aristos, Gr. best, and lochereo, Gr. to bring forth, in allusion to its supposed virtues.

cells; it very rarely comes to perfection.

"A very

Sir J. E. Smith, in his Introduction to Botany, says, curious observation is recorded by Schreber and Willdenow concerning this plant. The stamens and pistils of this flower are inclosed in its globular base, the anthers being under the stigma, and by no means commodiously situated for conveying their pollen to it. This, therefore, is accomplished by an insect, the Tipula pennicornis, which enters the flower by the tubular part; but that part being thickly lined with inflexed hairs, though the fly enters easily, its return is totally impeded, till the corolla fades, when the hairs lie flat against the sides, and allow the captive to escape. In the mean while the insect, continually struggling for liberty, and pacing his prison round and round, has brushed the pollen about the stigma. I do not doubt the accuracy of this account, though I have never caught the imprisoned Tipula. Indeed I have never seen any fruit formed by this plant."-Introd. to Bot. ed. 5, p. 273.

The first time I saw the Aristolochia Clematitis † was on the 12th of July, 1812, at Godstow. It was growing close to where part of the foundation of the Nunnery had then very recently been removed. On opening some of the flowers, for it was then in blossom, I found within the globular base of the tube several very minute winged insects, which proved, on examination, to be the Tipula pennicornis of LINNAEUS, which is said by SCHREBER and WILLDENOW to be an auxiliary to the fertilization of the flower of this species. I have observed them in abundance in the flowers of the same species of Aristolochia, every year, for these last 20 years, in the Oxford Botanic Garden, where the plant always forms fruit, but the fruit very rarely comes to perfection. There were three or four fine ones produced in the autumn of 1832, one of which is represented in the annexed plate, from a careful drawing by Mr. ISAAC RUSSELL, of Oxford. I do not know that it has ever before been represented in any work on British Botany. Sir J. E. SMITH informs us, that he had " never seen any fruit formed by this plant;" neither had he ever seen the Tipula till I sent him specimens of it from the Oxford Garden, in August, 1813.

This plant is by no means so plentiful at Godstow now, as it was 20 years ago; and the Botanist who wishes to find it there, must look for it in a hedge on the bank of a watery ditch close to that part of the ruins which is nearest to Wytham. W. B. January 23, 1833.

The root of Aristolochia is aromatic and bitter, but not ungrateful to the palate. It makes a considerable part of the Portland Powder, a medicine that has been in high repute as a cure for the gout, but a long continued use of such medicine is said to be extremely hurtful, and often to produce effects more formidable than the original disease. As a warm, stimulating medicine, it still retains a place in some Pharmacopoeias. Great virtures were attributed to it by the ancients, as appears from the writings of DIOSCORIDES, GALEN, and PLINY. An opinion is said to prevail in France, that the produce of vineyards in which this plant abounds, becomes deteriorated in quality.-See WITH. Bot. Arr. and PURT. Midl. Fl.