ARACE^. 364 ACOROS. 



3. CALLA. 

 Spathe ovale, spreading; spadix covered with flowers, 

 staminate intermixed with, or above the pistillate; perianth 

 ; berry manj'-seeded. 



Gr. x-a-XXoi, beautiful ; a term well applied to some of the species. Peren- 

 nial, aquatic herbs. 



1. C. PALU'STRIS. 



Leaves cordate ; spathe ovate, flat; spadix covered with ovaries intermixed 

 with stamens. A fine plant growing in shallow water. Rhizoma creeping, 

 rooting at the joints. Leaves 2— 3 inches long, f as wide, on long stalks, 

 involute at the acuminate point, smooth and entire. Scape smooth, green, 

 roundish, thick, 4 — G inches high. Spathe clasping at the base, spreading, 

 recurved, with an involute point, greenish yellow witjiout, white and soft 

 within. Spadi.x an inch in length. The rootstock is acrid, but Linnceus tells 

 us that the Laplanders extract a wholesome bread stuff' from it. July. 



Northern Calla. 



Z. L. xETnio'piCA. — Lcflrcs sagittate-cordate ; .<;pa/Aecucullate ; spadix 

 with the sterile flowers above the fertile. A magnificent plant from Cape 

 Good Hope, now often met with in green-houses and parlors. The leaves are 

 very large, smooth and entire, on long, sheathing, radical footstalks. Scape 

 smooth, round, arising a little above the leaves, 3—5 feet high. Spathe very 

 large, white, involute at base, reflexed, and terminating abruptly in along 

 acumination. Spadix yellowish white, about half the length of the spathe. 

 Flowers from Jan. to May. Ethiopian Calla. 



4. ORO'NTIUM. 

 Spadix cjlindric, covered with flowers; perianth 4 — 6-se- 

 paled ; stamens 4 — 6; ovary free; stigma sessile ; fruit a dry 

 berry or utricle. 



The ancient Grecian name of a plant so called fiom its growing by the 

 Orontes, a river in Asia Minor. Acaulescent, aquatic, perennial herbs. Fls. 

 3'ellow, at the summit of the scape. Spathe radical. 



O. aqua'ticum. 



Leaves ovate-lanceolate ; spike or spadix cylindric, on a clavate scape. This 

 interesting plant is a native of inundated banks and pools, but not very com- 

 mon. The leaves are large (often becoming 10 — 12 inches long and ^ — | as 

 wide), smooth, of a deep-green, velvet-like surface above, paler beneath, on 

 long, radical petioles. Scape thick and terete, about a foot in length, closely 

 invested by the short spathe at base, and ending in a spadix of a rich yellow 

 color covered with small, perfect, yellow flowers of an offensive odor, — the 

 upper ones often tetramerous. May. Golden Club. 



5. A'CORUS. 

 Spadix cylindric, covered with flowers ; perianth 6-sepaled ; 

 ovary free; stigma sessile, minute; fruit dry, Scelled, many- 

 seeded. 



Gr. a, privative, and x-o^*), the pupil of the eye; because supposed to cure 

 maladies of the eye. Herbs with a fleshy rhizoma. Lvs. radical, ensiform. 

 Scape foliaceous. 



