SUPPLEMENT. 



THE FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



By Charles Louts Pollard. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Or///')' S'j)at/i/]t/o/r/f^. Spatlie-hearing planU. 



P'ainily Araceae. — Arnni family. This well known group is rep- 

 i-psent('(l ill the United kStates hy a ninnber of conunon ])lants, but its 

 tiTeatest development is in the tropics, both of the old and new world. 

 Tlie family contains about 105 genera and IMMj species; the vast ma- 

 jority are coarse erect heil)s, although some of the tropical forms are 

 climl)ing fleshy shrubs. The root is usually either tuberous or cor- 

 mose, •■■ and contains an acrid poisonous principle; it usually abounds, 

 however, in starch, and in certain genera yields an excellent quality of 

 arrow rool when proj.er precaution is taken to extiact the poisonous 

 ch'mcni. Tlie leaves are basal, long petioled, simple or compound, 

 oflen of large size. 



The liowers are usually monoecious or dioecious, at most with 

 mere traces of |)erianth, and ai'c densely crowded on a fleshy axis or 

 spike known technically as a sjualir. Often the staminate flowers oc- 

 cupy the ui)por and more elongated ])oi-tion of the spadix, while the 

 l)istillate flowers are crowded in a globose mass l>el()w. This is well 

 seen in the conunon cidti\atcd calla lily. Overarching or completely 

 enveloping the si)adix is a large leaf-like bract known as a spathe, 

 which is characteristic of this order of i)lants. In the skunk cabbage 

 the spathe is dark purple and green, and forms an enwrai)ping hood or 

 cowl. In the jack-in-the-pulpit the upper portion droops like a grace- 

 ful canopy over the projecting spadix, while the lower portion is unitatl 



*A corm is a fleshy, underground stem, resembling a bidb, but solid in struct- 

 nre, i. e., not composed of scales. The Jack-in-the-pulpit att'ords a good illustration 

 in the t'amilv under discussion. 



