The Skunk Cabbage, a Swamp Hostelry 



E. Laurence Palmer 

 Professor in Science in Iowa State Teacher's College 



It is fortunate that the likes and dislikes of all living things are 

 not the same. It is also remarkable that some of the most disliked, 

 ugly and disagreeable and unpretentious objects about us may be 

 the most interesting. Many of us have had the experience of 

 walking through a bunch of skunk cabbage in the spring. Few 

 of us, probably, cherished the experience as a pleasant one and yet 

 these seemingly disagreeable plants of the marsh are very interest- 

 ing, indeed. 



A glance at one of the first shoots sent up by this announcer of 

 spring cannot help but give one the impression that here in the 



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