Red and Indefinites 



naceous root (corm) they likewise boiled or dried to extract the 



stinging, blistering juice, leaving an edible little "turnip," how- 

 ever insipid and starchy. 



The Green Dragon, or Dragon-root {A. Dracontium), to which 

 Jack is brother, is found in similar situations or beside streams in 

 wet, shady ground, and sends up a narrow greenish or whitish 

 tapering spathe, one or two inches long, enwrapping a slender, 

 pointed spadix, that projects sometimes seven inches beyond its 

 tip. Within, tiny pistillate florets are seated around the base, 

 while on the staminate plants the inflorescence extends higher. A 

 large, solitary, dark green leaf, divided into from five to seventeen 

 oblong, pointed segments, spreads above. Large ovoid heads of 

 reddish-orange berries are the plant's most conspicuous feature. 



Skunk or Swamp Cabbage 



{Spathyema foetida) Arum family 

 {Symplocarpus foetidus of Gray) 



Flowers — Minute, perfect, foetid ; many scattered over a thick, 

 rounded, fleshy spadix, and hidden within a swollen, shell- 

 shaped, purplish-brown to greenish-yellow, usually mottled, 

 spathe, close to the ground, that appears before the leaves. 

 Spadix much enlarged and spongy in fruit, the bulb-like ber- 

 ries imbedded in its surface. Leaves: In large crowns like 

 cabbages, broadly ovate, often i ft. across, strongly nerved, 

 their petioles with deep grooves, malodorous. 



Preferred Habitat — Swamps, wet ground. 



Flowering Season— February — A p r i 1 . 



Distribution — Nova Scotia to Florida, and westward to Minnesota 

 and Iowa. 



This despised relative of the stately calla lily proclaims spring 

 in the very teeth of winter, being the first bold adventurer above 

 ground. When the lovely hepatica, the first flower worthy the 

 name to appear, is still wrapped in her fuzzy furs, the skunk cab- 

 bage's dark incurved horn shelters within its hollow, tiny, malodor- 

 ous florets. Why is the entire plant so foetid that one flees the 

 neighborhood, pervaded as it is with an odor that combines a sus- 

 picion of skunk, putrid meat, and garlic ? After investigating the 

 carrion-flower (p. 282) and the purple trillium, among others, we 

 learned that certain flies delight in foul odors loathsome to higher 

 organisms ; that plants dependent on these pollen carriers woo 

 them from long distances with a stench, and in addition sometimes 

 try to charm them with color resembling the sort of meat it is 



24 369 



