THE ARUM OR CUCKOO-PINT. 31 



a far more conspicuous object in the midst of the fast 

 thinning 1 hedgerow than the blossoms afforded months 

 beforehand, when everything was bursting- into verdure 

 and life. The leaves are on long footstalks that spring 

 directly from the root : they form an excellent illustration 

 of what is in botanical nomenclature called the sagittate 

 form of leaf, a term derived from the resemblance of the 

 form to that of the head of an arrow. The form may 

 be seen again in the sorrel and several other plants, but 

 the most striking and typical example is that afforded by 

 the foliage of the plant that is on this account called 

 the arrowhead. The foliage of the arum is often 

 irregularly blotched with spots of various sizes and 

 of a dull purple, or more rarely yellowish-white, the 

 general ground colour of the leaves being a dark green. 

 In some plants the purple blotches are of so deep a shade 

 as to be almost black, while in others these markings 

 are altogether absent. The blotched foliage is, however, 

 at once more striking and more characteristic. The 

 scientific name of the plant is the Arum maculatum, the 

 specific name being derived from the Latin word for 

 spotted. The generic name is derived from the Greek 

 equivalent, a word that itself was in turn derived from ar 

 or aur, signifying fire in ancient Hebrew and Egyptian, 

 and refers to the fiery or acrid taste of the plants com- 

 prising the genus a genus which in England contains 

 only the species under consideration. The rootstock or 

 rhizome contains a large quantity of farinaceous matter, in 

 its raw state exceedingly burning and acrid, but when 

 properly prepared and dried by the application of heat, 

 harmless and nutritious an excellent substitute for corn- 

 flour. The powder thus obtained was at one time an 



