CUCKOO-PINT. 8 1 



outward. As soon as the arum, with its 

 sprouting head, has raised its first leaves far 

 enough above the ground to reach the sun- 

 light, it begins to form fresh starches and new 

 leaves for itself, and ceases to be dependent 

 upon the store laid up in its buried lobe. 

 Most seeds accordingly contain just enough 

 material to support the young seedling till it 

 is in a position to shift for itself ; and this, of 

 course, varies greatly with the habits and 

 manners of the particular species. Some 

 plants, too, such as the potato, find their 

 seeds insufficient to keep up the race by 

 themselves, and so lay by abundant starches 

 in underground branches or tubers, for the 

 use of new shoots ; and these rich starch re- 

 ceptacles we ourselves generally utilise as 

 food-stuffs, to the manifest detriment of the 

 young potato-plants, for whose benefit they 

 were originally intended. Well, the arum 

 has no such valuable reserve as that ; it is 

 early cast upon its own resources, and so it 

 shifts for itself with resolution. Its big, 



G 



