. The families of flowering plants. Plants; Phanerogams. 90 FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. Family Aristolochiaceae. Birthwort Family. Contains 5 gen&ra and about 200 species, of which 180 belong to Aristolochia alone. The family may be known by the tubular calyx, more or less inflated below, and adherent to the ovary at the base. The stamens are six, adherent to the style (colummar portion of the pistil), while the fruit is a many-seeded, 6-celled capsule. The plants are herbs or climbing shrubs, with wood of most remarkable structure and quite distinct from that 6t all other exogens, consi
. The families of flowering plants. Plants; Phanerogams. 90 FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. Family Aristolochiaceae. Birthwort Family. Contains 5 gen&ra and about 200 species, of which 180 belong to Aristolochia alone. The family may be known by the tubular calyx, more or less inflated below, and adherent to the ovary at the base. The stamens are six, adherent to the style (colummar portion of the pistil), while the fruit is a many-seeded, 6-celled capsule. The plants are herbs or climbing shrubs, with wood of most remarkable structure and quite distinct from that 6t all other exogens, consisting of radiating plates of wood not disposed in rings. They are mostly of tropical distribution, being particularly abundant in South America. The flowers of Aristolochia are very diverse in shape and coloring; many species of this genus are ornamental in cultivation, as for example the familiar "Dutch- man's ; {A. macrophylla) and the tropical species sold as "gooseflower" {A. fmtens) a flower and leaf of which, one- half the natural size, are shown in Figure 74. The genus Asa- rum is well represented in the Eastern United States, A. Cam,- adense being the wild ginger or asarabacca. The species of Asarwn are all stemless herbs with handsome, often mottled, coriaceous leaves, and odd-look- ing flowers borne at the surface of the ground. These plants have very well-known medicinal properties; the roots are highly aromatic, and furnish a stimulant and a specific against snake poison; some species yield purgatives and vermifuges as w'ell. The chief point of interest attaching to the group lies in the unac- countably close affinity to the Monocotyledons, as shown by the six stamens and six-celled capsule, and by the peculiar structure of the wood to which reference has been made above. Family Rafflesiaceae. Rafilesia Family. This truly remarkable family has a world-wide reputation as the best illustration of vegetable parasitism carried to the farthest po
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