318 COMMON WEEDS 



being commonly present in woods, hedge banks, and 

 along the sides of ditches. It is a great favourite of 

 children, and is easily recognised by the long-stalked 

 leaves, shaped like an arrow-head and often spotted 

 with black, and by its large yellowish-green spathe or 

 leaf-like bract which encloses the pale purple spadix, at 

 the base of which appear the crowded scarlet berries 

 after the flowering period. This plant is of no agri- 

 cultural importance as a weed in the usual sense of 

 the word, though it occurs occasionally in meadows ; it 

 must, however, be mentioned on account of its poisonous 

 properties. All parts of the plant are deleterious, and 

 children who have eaten the tempting berries have been 

 fatally poisoned. The bruised leaves emit a disagree- 

 able odour, and the plant is not spontaneously eaten by 

 farm live stock, although pigs have eaten the tuber-like 

 corms (which are renewed annually at the base of the 

 stem) and suffered in consequence, though we believe 

 that no fatal results are recorded. 



The poisonous property is destroyed by drying, and 

 corms have been used for human food for the starch 

 which they contain ; when ground to a pulp, and baked 

 and powdered, the material is sometimes known as 

 Portland arrowroot. Owing also to the fact that it was 

 used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth for stiffening ruffs 

 and frills it has been called Starch-wort, and the fol- 

 lowing quotation from Gerarde's Herbal! is interesting: 

 "The most pure and white starch is made of the rootes 

 of the Cuckow-pint ; but most hurtfull for the hands 

 of the laundresse that hath the handling of it ; for it 

 choppeth, blistereth, and maketh the hands rough and 

 rugged, and withall smarting." In his Natural History of 

 Selborne Gilbert White states that he observed the root 

 of the Cuckoo-pint to be " frequently scratched out of 

 the dry banks of hedges, and eaten in severe snowy 



