ARUM FAMILY 



Such buoyant faith has the Skunk-Cabbage, it never entirely 

 loses sight of spring but exerts some spell over its muddy bed, 

 whereby you may see that there at least it has already come in 

 November. — Kirejeam. 



April 6, 1853. 



On the edge of the meadow the air resounds with the hum 

 of the honey-bees, attracted by the flower of the Skunk-Cabbage. 

 I heard the fine, sharp hum of the honey-bees before I thought of 

 them. It was surprising to see them directed by their instincts 

 to these locahties, while the earth has still but a wintry aspect, 

 buzz around some obscure spathe close to the ground, and, well 

 knowing what they are about, ahght and enter. ... I watched 

 many when they entered and when they came out, and all had 

 little yellow pellets of pollen at their thighs. — Thoreau. 



The first flower of our northern spring appears not 

 infrequently in February, always in March; it has no 

 great beauty that one should desire it, but is unusual 

 in form and interesting in character. As soon as the 

 surface of its boggy home is softened by the spring 

 sunshine sufficiently to permit, a thick, fleshy, shell- 

 shaped body, which the books call a spathe, pushes 

 its pointed nose out of the ground, and soon rises to 

 the height of three or four inches, spotted and striped 

 with purple and yellow and green. This is not the 

 flower, but the protector of the flowers. They are 

 within, packed close upon a finger-like body called a 

 spadix. 



Most flowers have characteristic plans for securing 

 cross-fertilization by the visits of flies, bees, butter- 

 flies, or moths, and Skunk-Cabbage is no exception. 

 It is astonishing when snow is still on the ground here 

 and there, that so much insect life can be abroad, yet 

 certain smaU flies are really abundant; for ah nature 

 sleeps with one eye open. These fly about in the 



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