428 ARACE.fi. (arum family.) 



anthers 2-cclled, opening lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled, with 5-6 erect anatro- 

 pous ovules : stigma sessile. Berries (red) distinct, few-seeded. Seeds with a 

 conspicuous rhaphe, atid an embryo nearly the length of the hard albumen. — A 

 low perennial herb, growing in cold bogs, with a creeping thickish rootstock, 

 bearing heart-shaped long-petioled leaves, and solitary scapes. (An ancient 

 name, of unknown meaning.) 



1. C palustl'is, L. — Cold bogs, New England to Penn., Wisconsin 

 and common northward. June. — Seeds surrounded with jelly. (Eu.^ 



4. SYffl PILOCARPUS, Salisb. Skunk Cabbage. 



Spathe hooded-shell-form, pointed, very thick and fleshy, decaying in fruit, 

 Spadix globular, short-stalked, entirely covered with perfect flowers which are 

 thickly crowded and their (1-celled or abortively 2-celled) ovaries immersed in 

 the fleshy receptacle. Sepals 4, hooded. Stamens 4, opposite the sepals, with 

 at length rather slender filaments : anthers extrorse, 2-celled, opening length 

 wise. Style 4-angled : stigma minute. Ovule solitary, suspended, anatropous. 

 Fruit a globular or oval mass, composed of the enlarged and spongy spadix, en- 

 closing the spherical seeds just beneath the surface, which is roughened with the 

 persistent and fleshy sepals and pyramidal styles. Seeds filled by the large 

 globular and fleshy conn-like embryo, which bears one or several plumules at the 

 end next the base of the ovary : albumen none. — Perennial herbs, with a strong 

 odor like that of the skunk, and also somewhat alliaceous ; a thick descending 

 rootstock bearing a multitude of long and coarse fibrous roots, and a cluster of 

 very large and entire veiny leaves, preceded by the nearly sessile spathes. 

 (Name from o-v/wAokj}, connection, and napiros, fruit, in allusion to the coales- 

 cence of the ovaries, &c. into a compound fruit.) 



1. S. fuetidllS, Salisb. Leaves ovate, heart-shaped (l°-2° long when 

 grown), short-petiolcd ; spadix much shorter than the spathe. (Ictodes, Bigel.) 

 — Moist grounds ; common. March, April. — Spathe spotted and striped with 

 purple and yellowish-green, ovate, incurved. Fruit ripe in September, forming 

 a roughened globular mass 2' -3' in diameter, in decay shedding the bulblet- 

 like seeds, which are $'-£' in diameter, and filled with the singular solid fleshy 

 embryo. 



5. OBONTIVl, L. Golden-club. 



Spathe none. Flowers crowded all over a cylindrical spadix, perfect : the 

 lower with 6 concave sepals and 6 stamens ; the upper ones with 4. Filaments 

 flattened : anthers 2-celled, opening obliquely lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled, with 1 

 amphitropous ovule : stigma sessile, entire. Fruit a green utricle. Seed with- 

 out albumen. Embryo thick and fleshy, " with a large concealed cavity at the 

 summit, the plumule curved in a groove on the outside." (Ton:) — An aquatic 

 perennial, with a deep rootstock, long-petioled and entire nerved floating leaves, 

 and the spadix terminating the naked scape, which thickens upward. (Origin 

 of the name obscure.) 



1. O. aquaticuni, L. — Ponds, Massachusetts to Virginia, near the 

 coast, and southward. May. 



