MONOCOTYLEDONS 



165 



just over the tip of the anther ; so that the pollen 

 cannot reach it unless an insect alighting on the 

 leaf of the perianth called "the fall," searching 

 down the holes at the base of the filament for 

 honey, strikes its thorax against the anthers, 

 thus removing a quantity of pollen. The stigmatic 

 ledge can then receive it, 

 on the insect flying to the 

 other " falls " or to another 

 flower. 



It has long been known, 

 even to Linnaeus, that the 

 Iris was dangerous to 

 cattle. The flowers and 

 the rhizomes have drastic 

 properties and also very 

 marked emetic ones. 



All the other species of 

 Iris must be regarded as 

 equally suspicious. 



CucKOO-piNT Family 

 {AroidecB^ Fig. 43.) — 

 Lords and Ladies, or Cuckoo-pint {Arum macu- 

 latum), is our only representative of this family, 

 which contains many foreign poisonous plants. It 

 is well known by its leaf, being shaped like an 

 arrow-head and often spotted, and the large sheathed 

 spathe with the purple spadix, which bears the male 

 and female flowers upon it. 



Fig. 43- 



Arum maculatum 

 and Ladies. 



Lords 



