CUCKOO-PINT. 83 



if not in our own purple cuckoo-pint, at 

 least in the big white '^Ethiopian lilies' which 

 form such frequent ornaments of cottage 

 windows. Clearly, this is a flower which the 

 plant cannot produce without laying up a 

 good stock of material beforehand. So it 

 sets to work accumulating starch in its root. 

 This starch it manufactures in its leaves, and 

 then buries deep underground in a tuber, by 

 means of the sap, so as to secure it from the 

 attacks of rodents, who too frequently appro- 

 priate to themselves the food intended by 

 plants for other purposes. If you examine 

 the tuber before the arum has blossomed, you 

 will find it large and solid ; but if you dig 

 it up in the autumn after the seeds have 

 ripened, you will see that it is flaccid and 

 drained ; all its starches and other contents 

 have gone to make up the flower, the fruit, 

 and the stalk which bore them. But the 

 tuber has a further protection against enemies 

 besides its deep underground position. It 

 contains an acrid juice like that of the leaves, 



G 2 



