SUBSTITUTE FOR THE POTA70E. 165 



number of erect ovules. In the Arum maculatum, the number 

 of ovules does not exceed six. Some botanists have laid hold 

 of this characteristic as an excuse for withdrawing the Medi- 

 terranean species from the arums, and creating a new genus, 

 arisarum. The variety we have just described is, in that case, 

 denominated the Arisarum vulgare. 



The ancients have mentioned numerous species of the arum. 

 But it is a very difficult task to bring their nomenclature into 

 any kind of agreement with the species described by modern 

 botanists. However, we may, I think, regard the arisarum 

 of Pliny and Dioscorides as positively identical with our Arum 

 arisarum. But we are' unable to admit that the aron, the 

 hepha, the dracunculus, the dracontium, can be, as commen- 

 tators represent, one and the same plant; still less can we 

 admit that this plant is our Arum maculatum, which is very 

 much rarer in the south than in the north and centre of 

 Europe. In the solution of such problems as these, geogra- 

 phical botany is an element which must not be neglected. 

 Unfortunately it has never been taken into account by the 

 commentators on the great classical authorities. 



Let me advance a simple proposition. Since the potatoe 

 has become diseased, and the species tends to degenerate, 

 may we not find a substitute for it, at least, a partial one, 

 among our Aroids, and, notably, in the Arum maculatum ? 



THE RANUNCULACE^E. 

 Let us return for a while to the order of Ranunculacese, of 



