ARACE^. (arum family.) 475 



Class II. M ON C T YLE D ONOU S or EN- 

 OOGENOUS PLANTS. 



Stems with no manifest distinction into bark, wood, and 

 pith ; but the woody fibre and vessels in bundles or threads 

 which are irregularly imbedded in the cellular tissue: peren- 

 nial trunks destitute of annual layers. Leaves mostly paral- 

 lel-veined (nerved) and sheathing at the base, seldom sepa- 

 rating by an articulation, almost always alternate or scattered 

 and not toothed. Parts of the flower commonly in threes. 

 Embryo with a single cotyledon, and the leaves of the plu- 

 mule alternate. 



Okdeu 107. ARACEiE. (Arum Family.) 



Plants tcilh acrid or punyent juice, simple or compound often veiny leaves, 

 and Jlowers crowded on a spadix, which is usually surrounded by a spathe. 

 — Flonil envelopes none, or of 4 -G sepals. Fruit usually a berry. Seeds 

 with ilesliy albumen, or none but lilled with the large fleshy embryo in 

 Nos. 2, 4, and 5. A large family, chiefly tropical. Herbage abounding 

 ih slender rhaphides. — Tiie genuine Aracea; have no floral envelopes, and 

 are almost all moncEcious or dioecious : but the genera of the second section 

 with more highly developed flowers are not to be separated. 



# Spathp surrounding or subtcndinR the spathe : flo^ver^ naked ; i. e. without perianth. 



1. Arisa;nia. Flowers monoecious or dioecious, covering only the base of the spadiv. 



2. Peltaiiilra. Flowers monoecious, covering the spadix ; an tliers above, ovaries below. 



3. C'alln. Flowers perfect (at least the lower ones), covering the whole of tlie short spadix. 



Spathe open and spreading. 

 • » Spathe surrounding the spadix in No. 4, none or imperfect in the rest : flowers witfi a 

 calyx or peri.anth and perfect, covering the whole spadix. 



4. Syinplocarpus. Spadix globular, in a fleshy shell-shaped spathe. Stemless. 



5. Orontiuin. Spadix narrow, naked, terminating the terete scape. 



6. Acorus. Spadix cylindrical, borne on the side of a leaf-like scape. 



1. ARIS-SlMA, Martins. Indian Turnip. Dragon-Arum. 



Spathe convohite below and mostly arched above. Flowers monfcciuus or 

 by abortion dioecious, coverino; only the base of the spadix, which is elongated 

 and naked above. Floral envelopes none. Sterile flowers above tho fertile, 

 each of a cluster of almost sessile 2 - 4-celIed anthers, opening by pores or chinks 

 at the top. Fertile flowers consisting each of a l-<t»clled ovary, tipjicd with a 

 depressed stigma, and containing 5 or 6 orthotropous ovules erect from the base 



