LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



measuring several feet in length (compare their 

 proportions with the shelves and potted orchids) 

 present a gorgeous display of colours, white, 

 green, pink, and crimson. Each fully developed 

 leaf is large enough to make a handsome natural 

 sunshade, but I fear that it would be of short 

 service. 



Such a large expanse of leaf denotes quite a 

 contrary state of things to that with which the 

 cactus has to contend. It tells of moist, open 

 situations where the leaves can spread themselves 

 out in safety to the shaded light. Plants which 

 grow in, or by, open rivers and pools, like the 

 common water lilies and the water dock, can 

 afford to spread out their leaf tissues in this 

 manner, because they have abundant moisture and 

 few enemies, and scarcely any competitors to con- 

 tend with for sunlight. So it is with the large- 

 leaved caladiums which grow in moist open places 

 in the warmer regions of the globe, as the West 

 Indies, Sandwich Islands, Brazil and other tropical 

 countries. 



I may also point out that this plant belongs 

 to the Arum family, whose British relative we 

 have considered in Chapter III. The leaves are 

 seen to be similar in shape to those of the familiar 

 British species, and an examination of the floral 

 parts of the caladium would still further show 

 its relationship. Yet how immensely different 

 are the two plants ; the British species living in 

 a temperate climate and inhabiting the over- 

 crowded, moist woodlands and watery ditches, 



I02 



