The genus Aristolochia, or Birthwort, is remarkable for the very singular shape of its flowers, which are as strange, and as much varied, as it is possible for the wildest imagination to conceive. The flowers are tubular, with one lip much longer than the other; and the tube takes an abrupt bend near the middle. Here are six anthers, fixed very curiously on the outside of a club-shaped column, split into six lobes at the point. In the centre of this column is a style with a six-rayed stigma; and the fruit is a large capsule with six cells, which opens by as many slits, and discharges the numerous thin, flat, dark brown seeds. _Asarum canadense_, the Wild Ginger of North America, has kidney-shaped leaves, and dark purplish brown flowers, on very short footstalks, which resemble those of the genus Stapelia, both in appearance and smell. ORDER CLXVI.—CYTINEÆ. The most interesting plant in this order is _Nepenthes distillatoria_, the Chinese Pitcher-plant, the leaves of which have a tendril at the point curiously dilated at the extremity, so as to form a cup-like appendage, which is generally full of water. The rim of the pitcher is beautifully ribbed, and it is furnished with a lid. The male and female flowers are on different plants, but neither of them possess much beauty. The remarkable Javanese fungus Rafflesia belongs to this order. A small order called Cephaloteæ, and containing only the genus Cephalotis, formerly included in Rosaceæ, is introduced here. ORDER CLXVII.—EUPHORBIACEÆ. [Illustration: FIG. 144.—EUPHORBIA.] [Illustration: FIG. 145.—FRUIT OF EUPHORBIA.]