1. ÁSARUM, Tourn. Asarabacca. Wild Ginger.
Calyx regular; the limb 3-cleft or parted. Stamens 12, with more or less distinct filaments, their tips usually continued beyond the anther into a point. Capsule rather fleshy, globular, bursting irregularly or loculicidal. Seeds large, thick.—Stemless perennial herbs, with aromatic-pungent creeping root-stocks bearing 2 or 3 scales, then one or two kidney-shaped or heart-shaped leaves on long petioles, and a short-peduncled flower close to the ground in the lower axil; in spring. (An ancient name, of obscure derivation.)
§ 1. Calyx-tube wholly adnate to the ovary, the tips inflexed in bud; filaments slender, much longer than the short anthers; style barely 6-lobed at the summit, with 6 radiating thick stigmas; leaves a single pair, unspotted.
1. A. Canadénse, L. Soft-pubescent; leaves membranaceous, kidney-shaped, more or less pointed (4–5´ wide when full grown); calyx bell-shaped, the upper part of the short-pointed lobes widely and abruptly spreading, brown-purple inside.—Hillsides in rich woods; common, especially northward. (Addendum)—Asarum Canadense. In this species there are rudimentary subulate petals, alternate with the calyx-lobes.
§ 2. Calyx-tube inflated bell-shaped, somewhat contracted at the throat, its base adnate to the lower half of the ovary; limb 3-cleft, short; anthers sessile or nearly so, oblong-linear; styles 6, fleshy, diverging, 2-cleft, bearing a thick extrorse stigma below the cleft; leaves thickish, persistent, usually only one each year, often whitish-mottled; peduncle very short; rootstocks clustered, ascending.
2. A. Virgínicum, L. Nearly glabrous; leaves round-heart-shaped (about 2´ wide); calyx short, reticulated within; anthers pointless.—Va. to Ga., in and near the mountains.
3. A. arifòlium, Michx. Leaves halberd-heart-shaped (2–4´ long); calyx oblong-tubular, with very short and blunt lobes; anthers obtusely short-pointed.—Va. to Fla.
2. ARISTOLÒCHIA, Tourn. Birthwort.
Calyx tubular; the tube variously inflated above the ovary, mostly contracted at the throat. Stamens 6, the sessile anthers wholly adnate to the short and fleshy 3–6-lobed or angled style. Capsule naked, septicidally 6-valved. Seeds very flat.—Twining, climbing, or sometimes upright perennial herbs or shrubs, with alternate leaves and lateral or axillary greenish or lurid-purple flowers. (Named from reputed medicinal properties.)
§ 1. Calyx-tube bent like the letter S, enlarged at the two ends, the small limb obtusely 3-lobed; anthers contiguous in pairs (making 4 cells in a row under each of the three truncate lobes of the stigma); low herbs.