My Garden in Spring 



seed, even after I have liberated the flies. The commoner 

 black Arum, Dracunculus vulgaris, never gets choked up 

 in the same way, and occasionally bears a few red berries in 

 September, showing that some visitors have effected its 

 fertilisation. The leaves of Helicodiceros are very curious, 

 and worth examining carefully. They are of the general 

 arrow-head plan so frequent among aroids, but are divided 

 into several lobes, and the barbs of the arrow-heads are 

 twisted until they stand upright and form two horns, which 

 peculiarity has furnished the generic name Helicodiceros 

 that is, the spirally twisted two-horned. 



It was on a glorious day in late May that many of the 

 photographs that illustrate this book were taken, and I 

 want to lead you round in the track of the photographer 

 to describe some of the results. 



The Chusan Fan Palm outside the morning-room 

 window was within a few days of opening its large bunches 

 of flowers. At this early stage they look somewhat like 

 yellow cauliflower, but when open are more spread out 

 and lighter in effect. They are particularly interesting, 

 as this specimen appears to be a peculiar one, and though 

 in most seasons its flowers are wholly male, bearing 

 only pollen, now and then a few of the last flowers to 

 open on the spikes are furnished with ovaries, and twice 

 I have known it to set fruits which swelled to a fair size 

 before severe winter frosts destroyed them. I have shown 

 specimens of the two kinds of flowers and also immature 

 fruit at the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, and have not as yet heard of another instance 

 of a monoecious specimen of Trachycarpus excelsus. This 

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