35 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



Usually the stigma ripens before the anthers. The 

 flowers may have a strong scent attractive to carrion 

 flies, which carry pollen. 



Some Aracese are poisonous, with latex. There 

 are starchy rhizomes in Arum, etc. Acrid properties 

 are possessed by some types. 



Cuckoo Pint or Lords-and-Ladies {Arum 

 maculatum) . 



There appears to be little or no meaning attached 

 to the first Latin or Greek name. The second refers 

 to the spotted leaves. The name Cuckoo Pint is a 

 contraction of Cuckoo-pintle. Lords-and-ladies is 

 applied in allusion to the two types of spadix which 

 occur, a dark and a light one, the former representing 

 a lord, the latter a lady. Holloway gives a quaint 

 explanation : " So-called, I presume, from the stately 

 appearance the blossom has, by being partially in- 

 closed and protected by the sheath, so that the flower 

 appears as though it were in a kind of state-chair or 

 carriage." 



This common plant is found in most parts of the 

 British Isles, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel 

 Islands. In the North of England it is found at an 

 altitude of looo ft. There are some areas locally, 

 however, where it does not grow and this peculiarity 

 applies also to such plants as Dog's Mercury and 

 Red Campion, as has been made clear by a careful 

 survey of the vegetation of Leicestershire. 



Woods and thickets, hedges, hedge-banks, are the 



