ARTVIN', a t. of Asiatic Turkey, in the vilayet of Trebizond, 100 m. e. from the t. of Trebizond. The inhabitants, about 0500 in number, mostly belong to the Roman Catholic church. .
a genus of monocotyledonous plants, belonging to the natural order arace® or aroidecs. This order consists of herbaceous plants, some of which are stemless, and shrubby plants, some of which are arborescent, and some climb by aerial roots, clinging to the trees of tropical forests. The leaves are sheathing at the base, convolute in bud, usually with branching veins. The flowers are male and female, naked, arranged upon a spadir, which is generally inclosed in a spathe (q.v.); the male flowers at the upper part of the spadix, and the female flowers at its base. The stamens are definite or indefinite in numbers; the anthers sessile, or nearly so, and turned outwards, The ovary is free, generally one-celled, many-seeded; the stigma sessile. The fruit is succulent, the seeds pulpy, the embryo in the axis of fleshy or mealy albumen, with a lateral cleft in which the plumule lies; the albumen, however, is wanting in some plants of the order.—As thus defined, this order contains almost 200 known species, natives chiefly of tropical countries, but some of the herbaceous kinds belong to colder climates.—The limits of the order are, however, sometimes extended, so that it includes as typhaear,, pistkteete, etc.—The genus A, has a convolute spathe; the spadix naked at the point. In some species, a stench like that of carrion is produced during flowering, as well as a remarkable heat. Flowers, in general, are slightly warmer than the ail around them, the heat being produced by the union of oxygen with some starph-like ingredient in the sap of the petals, or other parts of the flower; for flowers, instead of absorbing carbonic acid gas and giving off oxygen In the sunshine, like the leaves of plants, absorb oxygen and give off carbonic acid, like the lungs of animals. But flowers, in general, are only one degree, or one degree and a half, warmer than the air, whereas the flowers of some of the arums and nearly allied plants arc sensibly warm to the touch, and that of A. cordifolium has been found to have a heat of 121' F., while that of the air was only 66' F.—The only British species is A. maculatum, CUCKOW-I'INT or WAKE-ROBIN, which is abundant in England and in most parts of Europe, growing chiefly in moist shady woods and under hedges. It has a tuberous perennial root; its leaves are all radical, on long stalks, strongly arrow-shaped, often spotted; the spathe greenish yellow, inclosing a rather short violet or brownish red spadix. It produces scarlet berries. 1 or 2 seeded, about the size of peas, clustered upon the spadix. The root has a burning acrid taste, which, however, it loses in drying or boiling. In a fresh state, it is a drastic purgative, too violent for medicinal use; and, indeed, it, as well as the leaves, is an active poison; yet a nourishing farina is prepared from it, after the acrid juice has been removed. This
farina is a pure starch, and is known in England by the name of Portland sago or Port land arrow-root. It was formerly prepared to a considerable extent in the isle of Port land, where also the tubers (corms) themselves are eaten by the country people. A cos metic, called cypress powder, is made from them in France, and they are used in Swit zerland as a substitute for soap. They contain, indeed, a quantity of eaponine, to which their acridity is supposed to be owing. They lose great part of their acridity in drying, and were formerly used in medicine as a stimulant in impaired digestion, a diuretic in dropsies, and an expectorant in chest complaints. The plant is extensively cultivated in India for food.— A. indicum is also much cultivated in Bengal for its esculent stems and small pendulous tubers.—Acridity in the juice, and the presence of an amylaceous substance of very nutritious quality, from which the acrid juice is easily separated, are characteristics of many plants of this order, particularly species of caladium and coloca sia, much used for food in warm countries, under the names cocco (q.v.), EDDOES. etc. eampanulatus (A. campanulatum), called OL by the Bengalese, is very much cultivated in some parts of India for its roots (flat underground corms), which form a very hn portant article of food; yet in a fresh'state it is so acrid that it is employed as an external stimulant, and is also used as an emmenagogue. Other species of anior phopallas are still inure powerfully stimulant.—Two large species of arisama, another genus very closely allied to A., were found by Dr. Hooker to afford food to the inhabi tants of the Sikkim Himalaya at an elevation of upwards of 10,000 ft. Their tuberous roots are bruised by means of wooden pestles, and thrown into small pits with water, until the commencement of acetous fermentation, when the acridity is mostly dissipated; but the process is so imperfect, that cases of injury from the poisonous juice are frequent. The tubers of ariscema atrorubens (A. tliphyllum of Linnmus), a native of the United States, and there known as dragon-root and Indian turnip, yield a pure white starch like that of A. maculatum. Their medicinal uses are also similar; they are employed as a stimulant of the secretions.—Tile DRAtON-PLANT, A. clracunculue, a native of the south. of Europe, is not uncommon in gardens in Britain, although it has a carrion-like smell, and its emanations are apt to produce headache and other disagreeable effects. It has a. singular appearance—straight stalks, 3 ft. high, curiously spotted like the belly of a snake.—The peculiar acridity of the aracecs is most remarkably displayed in the dumb. cane (q.v.).