SYMPLOCARPUS FCETIDUS. 



SKUNK-CABBAGE. 



NATURAL ORDER, ARACE^. 



Symtlocarpus FCETIDUS, Salisbury. — Spathe conch-shaped, acuminate; spadix on a short, 

 peduncle-like scape, oval and densely covered and tessellated with flowers ; stamens four, 

 opposite the fleshy, cucullate sepals; ovary one-celled; style four-sided, tapering to a 

 minute stigma ; fruit an oval, fleshy, berry-like mass coalesced with the base of the per- 

 sistent sepals and imbedded within the spongy receptacle ; seed globular, destitute of 

 albumen ; leaves at first orbicular cordate, finally cordate oval, on short petioles ; spadix 

 much shorter than the spathe. (Darlington's Floi-a Cestrica. See also Gray's Mamtal, 

 Wood's Class-Book, Chapman's Flora of the Southern States.) 



|NDER the name of " Skunk-Cabbage," the plant we now 

 illustrate is very widely known. It is our earliest flow- 

 ering plant, and the news of its first appearance is always hailed 

 with delight by those who are anxiously looking for the first 

 flowers of spring. It is singular, indeed, that it appears so early. 

 No matter how deeply the ground may have been frozen in the 

 winter, the first few warm days find the flowers ready to expand. 

 The roots are seldom less than six inches from the surface, and 

 it is quite probable that the pushing buds have grown up in 

 some degree during the winter, thawing their way, as it were, 

 through the frozen ground ; for plants are in some respects 

 like animals, and must keep up a certain degree of heat, no 

 matter how low the temperature may be about them. The 

 degree necessary is not, of course, near so high as that required 

 by animals, but it is not probable that the juices of these plants 

 ever thoroughly congeal, and thus the buds are able to keep 

 travelling slowly upwards at comparatively low temperatures. 

 That the parts would die if frozen is shown by some of the 

 earliest flowers. Very often they are in such haste to open 

 that they mistake a few warm February days for tlic return of 

 spring, and expand only to meet severe weather. In these cases; 



