ARUM FAMILY 



flower stem below; linear-lanceolate; one inch wide or 

 less; on both surfaces, smooth; acute at the apex; sharp- 

 edged; parallel- veined, with a rigid mid- vein running 

 their whole length. 



THE FLOWERS: minute, crowded on a spike two inches or 

 more long ("graters"). 



Probably most of us remember having been told some- 

 time or other that at the base of those grass-like ribbons 

 of yellow-green growing in a peat bog, was a "root" which 

 was good to eat, and having dug it up and wiped off the 

 black mire, we have enjoyed to the full the taste of Sweet 

 Flag. Liking it, we have taken home still more of the "root " 

 to boil and make candy from. In the former days, it 

 used to be quite an industry among the Nantucket boys 

 to peddle sticks of such candy from house to house at a 

 cent a piece. 



A further use of the "root" (which is really an under- 

 ground stem) for years has been and still is in the way of 

 a drug. Under the name of Calamus, a tonic and stimu- 

 lant, it has played its rdle in the apothecary shop as well 

 as in the family medicine chest. It is also used to make a 

 spice. 



