238 Flotvers and their Pedigrees. 



abundant leaves and blossoms of that strange flower 

 the cuckoo-pint, whose counterfeit presentment you 

 see in the figure on the previous page. Now, 

 cuckoo-pint, or lords-and-ladies, or wild arum, which- 

 ever you choose to call it, is a very singular plant in- 

 deed ; and it seems to me we cannot do better than 

 sit down and dissect one for the sake of understanding 

 its queer internal arrangements. If it were a newly 

 discovered Central African lily, we should all be read- 

 ing about its extraordinary adaptations in all the news- 

 papers: much more then, since it is a common English 

 plant we have all known familiarl}- from childhood 

 upward, ought we to wish for some explanation of its 

 singular shape and its wonderful devices for entrap- 

 ping and intoxicating helpless little flying insects. 



First of all, we must begin by recognising that the 

 apparent flower of the cuckoo-pint is not one single 

 blossom, but a whole group of separate blossoms, 

 closely crowded together in two or three little distinct 

 bundles on a long spike or succulent stem. And in 

 order to let us all clearly understand the meaning and 

 nature of the entire compound structure, I think we 

 had better divide our subject (as if it were a sermon) 

 into three heads. First, we must consider what are 

 the actual parts to be distinguished from one another 

 in the flower of the cuckoo-pint at the present day. 



