XANTHOSOMA SAGITTIFOLIA. 



ARROW-LEAVED SPOONFLOWER. 



NATURAL ORDER, ARACE/E. 



Xanthosoma sagittifoi.ia, Schott. — Stemless ; leaves glaucous, hastate-cordate, acuminate, 

 the lobes oblong, obtuse; spathe hooded at the summit, oval-lanceolate, whiti . 

 than the spadix ; root tuberous; petioles twelve to fifteen inches long; leaves five to 

 seven inches long, the lobes somewhat spreading and generally obtuse ; scape as long as 

 the petioles. (See Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States ) 



ERY few persons who go out to gather wild flowers will 

 return with the subject of the present sketch, for it is 

 one of the scarcest of our native plants. The writer has never 

 met with it in a wild condition, and the drawing was made from 

 a specimen kindly furnished by Prof. C. S. Sargent, of the 

 Cambridge Botanical Garden, Massachusetts. Dr. Chapman, 

 whose description is here adopted, gives only two localities, 

 Savannah, Ga., on the authority of Elliott, who was the author 

 of an early botany of South Carolina ; and Wilmington, N. C, 

 on the authority of Dr. Curtis. It is scarcely likely to be con- 

 fined to these two places ; but if any other botanist has collected 

 it elsewhere, it is in no list at our command. It is not at all 

 unlikely to be found in Florida, and perhaps many other places 

 South; for these districts have not yet been very well explored 

 botanically. But however that may be, Xanthosoma sagittifolia 

 is certainly not a plant which had its home originally in the 

 United States, though it may have been on our soil for count- 

 less ages. It is more probable, on the contrary, that it is a 

 wanderer far away from the original centre of its primeval 

 being. It is very abundant in the West India Islands, which, 

 in almost all European botanical works, are mentioned as its 



