20 AROIDEA—ARUM TRIBE 
one of the few cosmetics which are perfectly harmless. The Germans call 
the plant Aronswurz. Gerarde tells how the root was used “by way of 
cataplasm, blisterwise. The green leaves were commonly placed on the skin 
in eruptive disorders, and even the berries were crushed and drunk with 
wine, though this must have been a dangerous medicine. An old writer 
remarks: “Tragus reporteth that a drachm weight or more, if need be, of 
the Spotted Wake Robin, either fresh and greene, or dried and taken, is a 
present and sure remedy for poison and the plague. The juice of the herb 
swallowed to the quantity of a spoonful, hath the same effect ; but if there 
be a little vinegar added thereto, as well as to the root aforesaid, it somewhat 
allayeth the sharpe biting taste upon the tongue.” Modern medicines are 
not very pleasant to the palate, but truly may the invalid rejoice that the 
caustic Arum-juice is not among them. The root when fresh is undoubtedly 
very stimulant ; and Ettmiiller says, that cut in small pieces, and taken in 
brandy, it is a good medicine for loss of appetite, but it is a highly dangerous 
one. 
But a still more frequent use was made of the Arum-root, when, in the 
days of Queen Elizabeth, it furnished the starch for the ruffs worn by the 
gentlemen and gentlewomen of those times. Gerarde, who, like the people 
of Portland, called it Starch-wort, says, ‘The most pure and white starch is 
made from it;” but he adds, that it is ““most hurtfull to the hands of the 
laundresse that hath the handling of it; for it chappeth, blistereth, and 
maketh the handes rough and rugged, and withall smarting.” The immense 
lawn ruffs of those days needed some especially strong starch, nor could our 
English clear-starchers give them sufficient stiffness, till a Dutch woman 
came to London to teach the art of starching, and she probably used this root 
for her purpose. Queen Elizabeth, though she herself chose to wear these 
“most uncomfortable ruffs, yet so disapproved of the excesses of her subjects 
in this particular, that she ordered men to stand at the city-gates to cut 
down all ruffs more than a yard deep; and it was probably well for the 
hands of the laundresses, that, in the time of James L, ruffs grew into dis- 
repute among the fashionable, because Mrs. Turner, an accomplice in the 
death of Sir Thomas Overbury, was hanged in this article of dress. John 
Ray mentions that Arum-roots were formerly used as soap. 
The berries of the Cuckoo-pint are eaten by birds, especially pheasants ; 
and Gilbert White, of Selborne, remarked, that in severe winters thrushes 
dig up and eat the roots. 
2, Roman Arum (4d. italicum).—Leaves halberd-shaped, but more 
triangular than in 4. maculatum ; spathe three times the length of spadix, 
tip drooping ; spadix always yellow; berries longer. This species, which is 
in all respects much larger and stouter than ordinary examples of the 
common species, was long confounded with it in this country. It is 
restricted in range to the most southern portions of our country, and even 
within these limits is very local. It may be looked for in woods and hedge- 
rows from Cornwall to Sussex, and in the Channel Islands. There are 
several points by which it may be distinguished from 4. maculatum, apart 
from its superior size, which alone may cause vigorous specimens of the 
common species to be mistaken for it. The leaves of A. t/alicum are pro- 
