ARUM FAMILY. Aracex. 



Golden Club 



Orontium 

 aquctticum 

 Golden yellow 

 April-May 



A single species, perennial and aquatic, 

 whose prominent golden yellow spadix 

 (the club) scarcely larger around than its 

 long, snaky stem, is thickly clustered with 

 the completely developed flowers of gen- 

 erally six sepals, as many golden stamens, and a pistil. 

 The spathe is undeveloped and removed from the spadix, 

 appearing like a mere leaflet on the flower-stem. Fruit 

 green and bladderlike. The long-stemmed, oblong, dark 

 green leaves float upon the water. It is a beautiful 

 aquatic plant whose flowers deserve close examination 

 under the glass, 1-2 feet high, common in the shallows 

 of ponds, from Mass., south, and generally found near 

 the coast. Name from the Syrian river Orontes. 



The stiff, swordlike, light green leaves 

 give the plant a rigid character. It has 

 inconspicuous flowers compactly covering 

 a tapering cylindrical spadix which grows 

 angularly from the side of a two-edged stem 

 resembling the flat ribbonlike leaves. The 

 individual flower has a pistil, six stamens, and as many 

 sepals of a dull yellow-green color. The fruit is a small 

 berry, at first gelatinous and finally dry, but the plant is 

 mostly propagated by its stocky roots. Name, "AxopaS 

 of unknown meaning, from Pliny. The horizontal, pun- 

 gent, and pleasantly aromatic rootstalk is a familiar com- 

 modity of the apothecary. There is a striped-leaved 

 variety. The plant grows 1-4 feet high, or more, and is 

 found beside small streams and in wet ground, from 

 Me., south, and west to Minn., Iowa, and Kan. 



Calamus or 



Sweet Flag 



Acorus 



Calamus 



Yellow-green 



June-July 



9 



16 



