SYMPLOCARPUS foetidus.
Fcetid Symplocarpus, or Scunhweed.
Natural Order. A roidEiE. Brown Prodr. 333.
Sect. II. Flores hermaphroditi; Perianthio instructi.
ORONTIACEM.
S YM P LO C A R PU S . Spatha ventricoso-ovata, cucullata,
acuminata, basi convoluta. Spadix subglobosus ; floribus undi-
que tectus. Perianthium 4-partitum. Stamina 4. Bacca
coadunatre, monospermse. Semina magna, exalbuminosa.
S. foetidus. Salisbury in Hort. trans. Nuttall gen. amer.
V. 1. p . 106.
Dracontium foetidum. Willden. sp. pi. 2. p . 288.
Potbos foetida, Botan. magaz. 836. Hort. Kew. ed. 2. v. 1.
p . 270.
Root verticillately fibrous, truncate. Leaves large,
smooth, pale green, often tinged with purple or brown,
ovate-cordate, strongly veined, entire, preceded by
conspicuous sheathing stipules, and protected by
large glaucous, spathulate-linguiform, veinless bractes.
Scapes radical, appearing before the leaves. Spatha
discoloured, ovoid, roundish, cucullate, obliquely acuminate,
point coarctate, plaited, iuvolutely auriculate
at the base, thick and spongy, livid purple, blotched
and spotted with pale green, or greenish yellow
blotched with purple. Spadix pedunculate, simple,
almost sphaerical, covered with hermaphrodite flowers.
Bractes none. Flowers tessellately imbricate, adnate.
Perianthium 4-parted, persistent, divided to the base;
segments cucullate, truncate, compressed at the apex,
emarginate, at length becoming very thick and spongy.
Stamens 4, opposite the divisions of the perianthium;
filaments subulate, flat; anthers exserted, short,
oblong-oval, 2-celled. Style thick, pyramidal, quadrangular,
acuminate; stigma simple, minute, pubescent,
shorter than the stamens. Germen immersed
in the spongy receptacle, I-seeded. Seed naked, large,
round, inclosed in the common receptacle. Corculum
JU, fS lL