PISTILLATES AND STAMINATES 21 



fortably housed and well-fed, till the pollen is ready 

 for delivery, at which time the hairs wither and 

 fall, the prison bars vanish, and the insect may climb 

 out over the stamens and escape with some pollen; 

 only to repeat his house-breaking, be caught and 

 serve another term. 



Thus we see that the habits and doings of the 

 American and the English Arum are very different, 

 and we are led to wonder which of the two is the 

 older type. .We will find a clue to the answer in 

 closer scrutiny of Jack-in-the-Pulpit ; for among 

 the pistillate flowers we will often find one or two 

 little stamens popping out in unexpected places 

 upon the spadix and trying vainly to furnish pol- 

 len for all the clustered pistils. These unexpected 

 and useless little stamens show us that Jack-in- 

 the-Pulpit has an hereditary tendency to produce 

 perfect flowers; that he harks back to early an- 

 cestors like the Lords and Ladies of the Old Coun- 

 try, and still, once in a while, reverts to his primi- 

 tive ways. 



Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a degraded lily which has 

 lost its petals, its colour, and finally, in America, 

 has gone back to the dioecious habit ; and it so hap- 

 pens that all the intermediate stages of its descent 

 may be followed in living specimens. The proud 

 ancestor of the line, the lily, bears a showy, six- 



