CAT-TAIL FAMILY. 461 



8. COLOCASIA. (The ancient Greek name of the common spe- 

 cies.) 2/ 



C. antiquorum, Schott. One variety (var. escu/enta, Schott.) cult, in 

 the hot parts of the worid for its farinaceous, thick rootstocks (which are 

 esculent when the acrid principle is driven off by heat, as also the leaves), 

 and in gardens for its magnificent foliage, the pale ovate-arrow-shaped 

 leaves being 2°-3° long when well grown ; the stalk attached much below 

 the middle, the notch not deep. 



9. CALADIUM. (Name obscure.) Well-known plants grown in 

 glass houses for their great leaves, which are now broken up into very 

 many styles of markings. The specific types are often unrecognizable 

 in the horticultural varieties, but most of them have come from the 

 two following Brazilian species. 



C. bicolor, Vent. The chief species ; rhizome depressed-globose ; leaves 

 sagittate-ovate or ovate-triangular, the upper portion nearly ovate and 

 narrowly cuspidate at the apex ; the lobes oblong-ovate and obtuse and 

 more or less connate, the blade variously colored above and somewhat 

 glaucous below ; tube of spathe green outside, but whitish-green or violet 

 inside, the limb white and cuspidate and scarcely twice longer than the 

 tube ; pistillate portion of the spadix yellow or pale orange, the sterile 

 portion narrow and of about equal length. 



C. picturdfum, C. Koch. Rhizome spherical and tuberculous ; leaves 

 sagittate-lanceolate, the upper portion triangular to ovate-lanceolate, the 

 lobes lanceolate and somewhat acute and mostly not connate, the blade 

 variously colored above and pale beneath ; spathe tube green outside, 

 purplish- or yellowish-green inside, the limb cuspidate-apiculate and 

 shorter than the tube, white or yellowish ; sterile portion of spadix 

 shorter than pistillate portion. 



10. ORONTIUM, GOLDEN CLUB. (Name obscure.) 



O. aqueiticum, Linn. Leaves and scapes arising from a deep root- 

 stock ; scape l'^-2° high, mostly decumbent ; the spike or spadix 2'-3' 

 long and scarcely thicker than the scape. Ponds, Mass., S. ; the only 

 species. 



11. ACORUS, SWEET FLAG or CALAMUS. (Ancient name, of 

 obscure origin.) 2/ 



A. C^amus, Linn. Common Sweet Flag. In wet grounds ; send- 

 ing up the 2-edged sword-shaped leaves, 2° or more high, from the hori- 

 zontal, pungent, aromatic rootstock ; flowers early summer. There is a 

 striped-leaved variety. 



CXXX. TYPHACEiE, CAT-TAIL FAMILY. 



Perennial marsh herbs, or some truly aquatic, with linear 

 and straight-nerved erect (unless floating) long sessile leaves, 

 sheathing at base, and monoecious flowers on a dry spadix, 

 destitute of calyx and corolla; the fruit dry an.d nut-like, 

 1-seeded, rarely 2-seeded. 



1. TTPHA. Flowers indefinite, in a dense cylindrical spike terminating the long and 

 simple reed-like stem ; the upper part of st^meqs only, mix?(l vrith long hairs : the 



