108 Kansas Academy of Science. 



608. Spirodela polyrrhiza Schleiden. Great Duckweed. Still waters, 

 general; common, and at times very abundant. Oct. (ASU) 



Family 39. Arace^. Arum Family. 

 Plants arising from a large perennial corm, with very acrid sap caused 

 by minute acicular crystals of calcium oxalate. Leaves with erect later- 

 ally compressed two-ranked laminodia with very deep carinse and closely 

 folded narrow wings, in Acorus; otherwise with petioles and broad laminae 

 of various forms, as ovate, simple or compound, peltate, cordate, auricu- 

 late, or hastate, all with netted venation and sheaths below the petioles, 

 sometimes very short. Inflorescence of many minute naked six-parted or 

 four-parted florets, closely crowded on a cylindrical spadix subtended by a 

 conspicuous often highly colored spathe. Florets apparently perfect, in 

 practice dioecious, as the stamens on one plant are suppressed, and on an- 

 other the pistils, making the one practically carpellate arid the other stami- 

 nate. Fruit a berry. Seeds hypnospermous, with copious albumen and an 

 axial embryo. 



609. Acorus calamus L. Sweet-flag. Calamus. At a few places in 

 eastern Kansas; but very little beyond where introduced. May. (ASU) 



610. Arisasma triphyllum Torr. Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Indian Turnip, 

 Rich soil in moist woods and thickets, E. K. ; frequent. June. (ASU) 



611. Arissema dracontium Schott. Green-dragon, Dragon-root; Indian 

 Turnip. Rich alluvial soils in woods and thickets, E. K. ; common. May. 

 (ASU) 



612. Amorphophallus giganteus Blume. Giant Arum. From South 

 Africa; occasional in gardens for the wonder of the plant. 



613. Caladium esculentum L. {Colocasia Morandi). Caladium; Ele- 

 phant-ear; frequent in gardens. 



614. Calla sethiopica L. (type species, 1753). Calla. From Cape of 

 Good Hope; frequent in house and garden culture. Later (1815) named 

 Richardia africana by Kunth. 



Order XX. PANDANALES. The Cattail Reeds. 

 Inflorescence in a compact spadix, or more or less interrupted spike, 

 subtended by a fugacious bract, at the summit of a naked or leafy stem, 

 the staminate flowers above the carpellate. Androecium of two to six 

 stamens, surrounded by numerous bristles or scales. Gynoecium of a single 

 carpel or of two united carpels; ovulary unilocular, one-ovuled, one-seeded. 



Family 40. Typhace^e. Reed-mace or Cattail Family. 

 Aquatic perennial herbs, from perennial horizontal rootstocks, and with 

 tall appressed dorso-ventrally compressed laminodia, in two ranks, alternat- 

 ing, with faces toward the central stem and without a keel. Carpellate 

 flowers very numerous, minute, closely crowded into a compact cylindrical 

 spike at the summit of a naked, wand-like, solid stem, standing high out of 

 water. Staminate flowers in a smaller spike above the carpellate (on the 

 same stem) and early deciduous. Perianth of several delicate silky clavate 

 hairs. Fruit nutlike, minute, ellipsoid or clavate, stipitate. Embryo 

 cylindric, straight, in abundant farinaceous endosperm. 



615. Typha latifoHa L. Cattail (flag). General throughout the state; 

 frequent in watery places. June. (ASU) 



