18 AROIDEZ 
it attached to their hairy wings, and this gets shaken off upon the stigmas. 
Until fertilization has taken place the flies are kept prisoners, but after that 
is effected the anthers let fall a shower of pollen upon them, the pistils 
secrete honey for their reward, and the shrivelling-up of the barrier of hairs 
sets them free to carry pollen to a slightly later Arum flower. The colour 
of the spadix and the unpleasant odour has direct relation to the visits of 
these flies. 
The Greek name Aron is thought by Sir William Hooker to have been 
derived from ar or awr, which in Hebrew and various old languages signifies 
fire, and to have been given from its burning taste; while Skinner thinks 
that its common country name of Wake Robin was bestowed because its 
acrimony would awaken the sleeping. The plant has a singular power of 
evolving heat from its spadix, at the expansion of the sheath. Professor 
Lindley records that Sennebier observed that the bulb of a thermometer, 
applied to the surface of the spadix of this species, indicated a temperature 
seven degrees higher than that of the external air; and M. Hubert found 
this heat in a more wonderful degree in the species termed 4. cordifolium, 
in the Isle of France. A thermometer, placed in the centre of five spadixes 
of this plant, stood at one hundred and eleven degrees ; and in the centre of 
twelve spadixes, at one hundred and twenty-one degrees, though the tempera- 
ture of the surrounding air was only sixty-six degrees. 
Many a country child knows something of the acridity of the Arum; 
and the author once saw the lips and tongue of a little friend much inflamed 
by having bitten the spadix. The application of milk soothed the pain in 
some measure, but it was not wholly removed for more than an hour. Yet 
the root, which is a tuber rather larger than a walnut, contains a farinaceous 
substance well fitted for making bread, or a dish resembling in flavour the 
Indian arrowroot. The author having, in a little book published some years 
since, named this flour of the root, was, during the famine in Ireland conse- 
quent on the failure of the potato crop, applied to by a gentleman residing 
in Galway for some information on the subject. The applicant, who com- 
manded a fort in the neighbourhood of which the Arum grew in abundance, 
stated that he had roasted and boiled these tubers, but that they still retained 
too great an acridity for use. The author, who could at that time discover 
no record of the mode of preparation, could only give the result of her own 
experiments on the plant, and directed her correspondent, after drying the 
root, to grate it into water, and after a time toremove the liquid. ‘The sedi- 
ment was again to be washed, and finally dried. ‘The benevolent inquirer 
tried this plan, and afterwards assured his correspondent that he had thus 
been enabled to prepare several packets of flour, perfectly free from flavour, 
and fit for use. The celebrated Portland sago has been long known to be 
obtained from the Arum root. This substance, which is more like arrowroot 
than sago, has from time immemorial been made in Portland Island ; and, in 
1797, a gold medal was given by the Society of Arts to Mrs. Jane Gibbs, 
for procuring a sample of starch for economic purposes from the root. A 
writer in the Pharmaceutical Journal, who in the year 1853 resided near Port- 
land, gives a full account of the process used in the island; and from his 
statement are gathered the following particulars. The starch, or arrowroot, 
