1. see sweet flag.
2. the aromatic underground stem of the sweet flag, yielding an oil used in perfumery.
3. any of various chiefly tropical asian climbing palms of the genus calamus, having strong flexible stems used as a source of rattan.
4. see quill.

1. the sweet flag, Acorus calamus.
2. A quill.

1. the indian cane, a plant of the palm family. it furnishes the common rattan. see rattan, and dragon's blood.
2. A species of Acorus (Acorus calamus), commonly called calamus, or sweet flag. the root has a pungent, aromatic taste, and is used in medicine as a stomachic; the leaves have an aromatic odor, and were formerly used instead of rushes to strew on floors.
3. the horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.

1. A reed; cane.
2. A kind of fragrant plant mentioned in the bible (ex. xxx. 23, etc.), and supposed to be the sweet-flag, Acorus calamus, or the fragrant lemon-grass of india, Andropogon Schœnanthus; the sweet-flag.
3. [capitalized] A very large genus of slender, leafy, climbing palms, natives chiefly of eastern asia and the adjacent islands.
4. A tube, usually of gold or silver, through which it was customary in the ancient church to receive the wine in communicating.
5. in music, a flute or pipe made of reed.
6. in ornithology, the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather; the barrel, tube, or quill proper, which bears no vexilla, and extends from the end of the feather inserted in the skin to the beginning of the rachis where the web or vane commences. see cut under aftershaft.
7. an ancient greek measure of length of 10 feet.
8. [capitalized] A genus of fishes, the porgies, belonging to the family Sparidæ.

1. perennial marsh plant having swordlike leaves and aromatic roots
2. a genus of Sparidae
3. the aromatic root of the sweet flag used medicinally
4. the hollow spine of a feather
5. any tropical asian palm of the genus calamus; light tough stems are a source of rattan canes