ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. 
Tue Seconpary CHARACTERS. 
Arum. Flowers sometimes diccious. Spathe cucullate, 
convolute at base. Perianth none. Spadixz cylindric, naked 
above, staminate below the middle, and pistillate at the base 
Berry one-celled, many-seeded. 
Spathe cucullate, one-leaved. Spadix not entirely covered with the fructification, 
being more or less naked above, with pistillate flowers beneath, and staminate in 
the middle (sometimes a few are staminate beneath). Berry mostly one-seeded, 
y cirrhose-glandular beneath. 
Tue Speciric CHARACTERS. 
Arum TRIPHYLLUM. Acaulescent. Leaves trifoliate, mostly 
in pairs. Leaflets oval, acuminate. Spadix clavate. Spathe 
ovate, acuminate, flat and defluted above. 
Subcaulescent. Leaves ternate. Leaflets ovate-acuminate, peduncled, with the 
laminz as long as the spadix. 
Tue ArtiriciaL CHaRAcTERS. 
Crass Monacra, Stamens apart from the pistils in differ- 
ent flowers, upon the same plant. Onrper Po.yanpria. 
Herbs. Endogens. Monececious. Flowers incomplete on a 
spadix. Spathe present. Stamens more than two. Root with 
a fleshy corm or rhizoma. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
The Dracon-root or Wake-Robin is a native of America, 
both North and South, and is common in all parts of the 
United States, growing in damp woods, in swamps, along 
ditches, and in other moist shady places. There are three 
varieties of this species of Arum, distinguished by the color 
of the spathe. One variety, virens, has a green spathe. 
Another, atropurpureum, has a dark-purple spathe. And the 
other, album, has a white spathe. 
This plant has a perennial root or cormus, which, early in 
the spring, sends up a large, ovate, acuminate, variously 
colored spathe, convoluted at bottom, flattened and bent over 
at top like a hood, and. supported by an erect, round, green or 
purplish scape. The scape is from eight to twelve inches 
high, embraced at the base by the long sheaths of the peti- 
oles. Within the spathe i is a club-shaped spadix, much shorter 
, than the spathe, green, p ourple , black, or bacon naald at 
