PISTILLATES AND STAMINATES 23 



The white calla, or Richardia, has gone another 

 step, as we shall find all the upper portion of its 

 spathe to be covered with stamens, while below are 

 clustered numerous ovaries accompanied by an un- 

 certain number of stamens. 



The English Lords and Ladies shows the com- 

 plete separation of stamens and pistils, the former 

 growing upon the middle portion of the spadix and 

 the latter below; in addition, the fringe of hair 

 has developed to entrap the insects, and the upper 

 tip of the spadix has become a smooth perch for 

 them to alight upon. 



The change from this state to that of the Jack- 

 in-the-Pulpit seems great and sudden. To produce 

 stamens and pistils in the same plant, and then to 

 change the plan and ever after grow stamens on 

 one plant and pistils on another looks revolutionary 

 at the first glance. But consider that you have only 

 to suppress the stamens on a plant of the Lords 

 and Ladies, and there you have a pistil-bearing 

 plant, or the reverse. Moreover, the stamens do 

 not forever stay suppressed and are occasionally 

 cropping out again to show us that Jack-in-the- 

 Pulpit has not so very long followed the dioecious 

 habit.* 



* For fuller description of the ancestry of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, the 

 reader is referred to Flowers and Their Pedigree, by Grant Allen, 



