Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/187

 IS ACORDS CALAMUS A NATIVE. 165

recent date. Dr. Hooker states, in liis ' Student's Flora,' that lie has not seen the fruit of Acorus, and I am myself in a similar case, but I have not made a speeial search. Dr. Boswell-Syrae describes it in 'English Botany,' but does not say if from British specimens.

The bearing of these various data seems to me to be against the nativity of Acorns Calamus in England. The plant is certainly not a showy or conspicuous one, and might be passed over by an ordinary observer, though its peculiar and powerful odour when bruised, readily makes its presence known even to them, and its singularity of appearance then becomes striking. It may be said, I think, with certainty that such, good observers as Turner, Lobel, Clusius, Gerarde, Parkinson, and Johnson, not to [nention others whose names are, from not being authors, less known, could not have passed by so singular a plant, — familiar, too, to all but Turner in the garden, and to which a special interest attached, from the uncertainty and confusion prevniling as to the right name of its then much-esteemed rhizome. Besides this, we know how readily Acorus is established if planted in a suitable situation, and how rapidly such aquatic species will extend themselves throughout a river basin. More- over, in this case there was a direct incentive to assist this, for the root bore a good price both as a drug and also among the brewers as a flavour- ing for beer. It is, indeed, generally admitted to have been planted in not a few of its stations ; and as definite statements on such subjects are rarely put on record, it is well to say here that Dr. J. E. Gray, of the Britisii ]\Iuseum, tells me, that the late Mr. Wiieeler,* of the Apothe- caries' Company, planted it extensively about London, and that Dr. Gray himself saw this done at the well-known locality at Lord INIansfield's, Highgate (see 'Flora of Middlesex,' p. 291). It would seem still more likely for the older apothecaries to act in this manner, and they probably did so ; though, even without this direct interference of man, the Acorus might readily become established on a river-bank in proximity to gardens (as at Fulham, the first locality recorded for Middlesex), from the rhi- zomes being thrown out with garden-rubbish.

Devos tells us that in 1590 and 1591 Sebitz naturalized it at Strasburg, and J. Bauhin at Belfort, and that in 1710 it had become abundant in Alsace, though wanting in France, where, indeed, it is still rare. We have seen that it was a little earlier in cultivation in Belgium, but there is no definite record of its having been intentionally planted in wild loca- lities there.

In conclusion, when we find the history of the plant in western Europe generally agreeing so closely with that in England, we must, I think, allow that tlic case for Acorns as a native becomes still further weakened. Indeed, all the facts about the plant seem to point to south-east Europe and adjacent parts of Asia as the home of Acorus Calaiiius, and to a pro- pagation westward by means of cultivation in botanic gardens ; whilst, as far as Great Britain is concerned, it probably originated from Gerarde's garden in Ilolborn, whither it may have been brought from Belgium by his friend Lobel.

the wood called usually Turner's Wood. (See Francis's Anal. Brit. Ferns, od. 1, p. 64.)
 * This Mr. Wheeler sowed and planted many rare species at Hampstead, in

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