14 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
obtuse, contracted a little way above the essential organs into a diamete 
of the same thickness as that of the rachis which bears them. Scape 
lengthening in fruit, until it exceeds the petioles of the leaves, which 
decay before the fruit changes from green to red. Berries rupturing 
the withered base of the spathe as they increase in size, about the si 
of currants, pale scarlet, in a compact oblong spike. Seeds usually 
3 in each berry, more rarely 2, 4, or 1, subglobular, flattened on one 
side, scarcely as large as coriander seed, brownish yellow, reticulated 
Leaves deep green, slightly shining, glabrous, concolorous or blotched — 
with purplish black, paler and sprinkled with very minute pellucid 
dots beneath. 
Common Cuckoo-pint. 
French, Gouet commun. German, Cefleckter Aron. 
Can we wonder at the delights of country children with this curious plant, which 
seems almost to be one of those things we constantly see in nature, designed 
illustrate the grotesque as well as the beautiful ? Its large handsome spathe, rising up — 
amidst the elegantly-shaped spotted leaves, forms a fitting shelter for the bright — 
coloured spadix or flower-stalk, the lord or lady, whichever it may be, within its pro- : 
tecting hood. The attractions of this curious plant do not cease with the early spring, . 
when the green leaves have faded away, and the lords and ladies and their habitation 
are seen no more. The little bunch of seedlike bodies about half-way down the — 
coloured spadix, which are, in fact, the pistils and seed-vessels, in the autumn of the 
year assume a brilliant red colour, looking like a bunch of coral, as, amid the withering 
grass of some hedgeside, they attract the notice of the passer-by. Beware, however, 
of being tempted to taste them! The whole plant is acrid, pungent, and poisonous, 
and children have suffered by eating the bright-coloured berries. The rhizomes contain 
a sort of farinaceous substance, which, when freed from its acrid qualities, becomes a — 
nutritious article of diet. Large quantities of it are collected in Portland island, and 
under the name of Portland sago. It is largely used to adulterate arrowroot. 
and powdered, the root is used by the French as a cosmetic and in a lotion. It is sold 
at a high price, under the name of cypress powder. Dr. Withering quotes Wedelius 
for the supposition that it was on this plant, under the name of chara, that the soldiers 
of Cesar’s army subsisted when encamped at Dyrrachium. A curious belief is recorded — 
by Gerarde, as coming from Aristotle, that bears, when half-starved with hybernating, 
having lain in their dens for forty days without any nourishment, but such as the 
get by “sucking their paws,” are completely restored by eating this plant. In severe 
out of the dry banks of hedges, and eaten by thrushes. In France the plant 
the name of chow poivre and pain de liévre, as though eaten by hares. In some pa 
of Worcestershire the cuckoo-pint is known as “bloody men’s fingers,” and some 
writers have supposed it to be the long purples of Shakspeare, rather than Orchi 
mascula, though with less probability, we think. Medicinally the arum had at one 
time great reputation in common with other plants containing acrid or poisonou 
qualities. In rheumatism, gout, and even consumption, its virtues were vaunted, bui 
are now happily discarded. Thearum is one of those plants which exhibit the 
curious and interesting fact of the vegetable evolution of heat, so evident, that for 
