Wild-Flower Study 



5*3 



/. Jack-in-the-pulpit unfolding; 2. Spadix 

 with pistillate -flowers; P, pistillate flower 

 enlarged; j. Spadix with staminate flow- 

 ers; an, a staminate flower enlarged, show- 

 ing the four anthers. 



strated that when a plant be- 

 comes very strong and thrifty, 

 its spadix will be set with the 

 pistillate flowers and its berries 

 will be many; but if the same 

 plant becomes weak, it produces 

 the pollen-bearing flowers the 

 next year. 



When "Jack" first appears in 

 the spring it looks like a mottled, 

 pointed peg, for it is well 

 sheathed. Within this sheath 

 the leaves are rolled lengthwise 

 to a point, and at the very center 

 of the rolled leaves is a spathe, 

 also rolled lengthwise, and hold- 

 ing at its heart the developing 

 flower-buds. It is a most in- 

 teresting process to watch the 

 unfolding of one of these plants. 

 On the older plants there are 

 two, or sometimes three leaves, 



each with three large leaflets; on the younger plants there may be but 

 one of these compound leaves, but the leaflets are so large that they seem 

 like three entire leaves. 



The spathes, or pulpits, vary in color, some being 

 maroon and white or greenish, and some greenish and 

 white. They are very pretty objects for water-color 

 drawings. 



Small flies and some beetles seem to be the pollen 

 carriers for this plant. Various ingenious theories 

 have been suggested to prove that our Jack-in-the- 

 pulpit acts as a trap to imprison visiting insects, as does 

 the English species; but I have studied the flowers in 

 every stage, and have seen the insects crawl out of the 

 hoods as easily as they crawled in, and by the same 

 open, though somewhat narrow, passage between the 

 spadix and the spathe. 



After a time the spathe falls away showing the 

 globular, green, shining berries. In August even the 

 leaves may wither away, at which time the berries are 

 brilliant scarlet. Jack-in-the-pulpit is a perennial. It 

 does not blossom the first year after it is a seedling. I 

 have known at least one case where blossoms were not 

 produced until the third year. Below ground, the main corm gives off 

 smaller corms and thus the plant spreads by this means as well as by 

 seeds. 



The berries of Jack- 

 in-the-pulpit. 



