A C O R U S Calamus.
Sw eet F la g .
H E X A N D R I A Monogynia,
G en. Char. Spadix cylindrical, clothed with florets*
Cor. o f fix petals, naked. Style none. Cap/, of
three cells.
Spec. Char. Summit of the ftalk above the flowers
very long, and leaf-like.
Syn. Acorus Calamus. Linn. Sp. P I. 462. Hudf.
F I. A n. 14 7 . With. Bot. A rr. 3 5 7 . Relh.
Cant. 140. Sibth. Ox. 1 1 2 . Woodv. Med. Bot.
4 7 2 . t. 1 7 3 . Dryandr. in A it. Hort. K ew . v . 1.
4 7 4 -
A . verus, five Calamus Officinarum. R ail Syn. 4 3 7 .
T h IS is not a very common inhabitant of pools, ditches,
and banks of rivers, and the flowers are extremely rare. We
received this wild fpecimen from A. B, Lambert, Efq. gathered
near Hampton Court. In the river Yare, both above and below
Norwich, it is more plentiful than in molt other places, infomuch
-that, at the Mayor’s annual feaft in June, the cathedral is entirely
ftrewed with this plant, which, being trodden upon, perfumes
the whole building; and bowers are conltructed in the ftreets,
of its leaves, neatly platted, and ftuck with cyphers or other
devices made of the garden ranunculus. The dried root powdered
is fuccefsfully ufed by the country people in Norfolk as
a cure for the ague.
The root is thick and fpongy, with many long radicles, ealily
diftinguifhed by its aromatic fmell. Leaves upright, long, fword-
fhaped, bright-green, with a fimilar fmell to that of the root,
but fainter; not unlike the odour of myrtle leaves. Stem like
the leaves, except in being thicker below the fpike, which comes
out laterally (in June or July), about mid-way from the root to
the fummit, and is cylindrical, tapering, naked, clothed with
innumerable, thick-fet, green flowers, each having fix inflexed
equal petals, fix ftamina rather fhorter than the petals, and an
elliptical germen with a feflile ftigma.