458 ARUM FAMILY. 



4-6, or 0. Fruit generally a berry. A large family in tlie 

 tropics, and comprising many plants of choice collections, cul- 

 tivated for the foliage, or for the showy, so-called ''flowers," 

 which are really colored spathes. 



« Plants tcith expanded leaf blade {never linear), and willi spreading nerves or veins. 



+- Spadi.c surrounded by a conspicuous, generally colored, spalhe. 



** Leaves (in ours) compound. 



1. ARI9.^i;MA. Leaves only one or two, with stalks sheathing the simple stem, wliirli 



rises from a fleshj' corm, and terminates in a long spadix bearing nude flowers only 

 at its base, where it is enveloped by the convolute lower i)art of the greenish or jun- 

 plish spathe. Sterile iiowers above the fertile, each of a few sessile anthers ; the 

 fertile each a 1-celled 5-d-ovuled ovary, in fruit becoming a scarlet berry ; commonly 

 dioecious, the stamens being abortive in one plant, the pistils abortive in the other. 

 +<- +*■ Leaves simple. 

 = Foliage of ordinary size, the leaves arrow shaped or heart shaped, or sometimes 

 nearly lanceolate. 

 II Spathe convolute (its mai-gins overlapping below) about the spadi.v. 



2. ARUM. Leaves hastate or sagittate, with the scape from a thick rhizome. Spathe 



convolute below, large, the blade ovate or ovate-lanceolate, mostly dark-colored, 

 sjtotted or green. Spadix shorter than the spathe, sessile. Flowers without enve- 

 lopes, monwcious, the staminate above. Ovary oblong and obtuse, l-celled, G-oo - 

 seeded. Berry obovoid, many-seeded. 

 8. PELTANDEA. Leaves arrow-shaped ; these and the scape from a tufted fibrous root. 

 Spathe convolute to the pointed apex, green, wavy-margined. Spadix long and 

 tapering, covered completely with nude flowers, i.e. above with naked shield-shaped 

 anthers each of 5 or 6 cells, opening by a hole at the to]), below with 1-celled ovaries 

 bearing several erect ovules, in fruit a 1-3-seeded fleshy bag. Seeds obovate, sur- 

 rounded by a tenacious jelly. 



4. RICHAUDLV. Leaves arrow-.shaped ; these and the long .scape from a short tuberous 



rootstock. Spathe broad, spreading above, convolute at base around the slender 

 cylindrical spadix, which is don.sely covered above with yellow anthers, below with 

 ovaries, each incompletely o-coUed, and containing several hanging ovules. Flowers 

 with no envelope-s. 



II I! Spalhe shell-form or hooded, inclosing the globular spadix, in which the flowers are 

 as it were nearly immersed. 



5. SY.NrPLOCAUPIiS. Leaves ovate, very large and veiny, short-petioled, appearing 



much later than the flowers from a fibrous-rooted corm or short rootstock. Spathe 

 ovate, incurved, thick, barely raised out of the ground. Each flower has 4 hooded 

 .sepals, 4 stamens with 2-celled anthers turned outwards, and a 1-celled, l-ovulc^d 

 ovary tijjped with a short awl-.shaped style ; the fruit is the enlarged spongy spadix 

 under the rough surface of which are imbedded large fleshy seeds. 



II II II Spathe open and spreading (not rolling around the spadix). 



6. CALLA. Leaves heart-shaped, on long petioles ; these and the peduncles from a creep- 



ing rootstock. Spathe open, the upper face bright white, spreading widely at the 

 base of the oblong spadix, which is wholly covered with the nude flowers ; the lower 

 ones perfect, having 6 stamens around a 1-celled ovary ; the upper often of stamens 

 only. Berries red, containing a, few oblong seeds, surrounded with jelly. 



7. ANTIIURRTM. Leaves various. Plant sometimes with a distinct stem or trunk (even 



climbing in some sjiecies). Flowers all perfect and fertile, and with a 4-parted 

 perianth, the spadix gener.ally elongated and prominent. Spathe ovate to lanceolate, 

 widely spreading or reflexed, thickish and mostly of a waxy texture. Ovary 2-cellcd, 

 with 1-2 ovules in each cell, but usually only 1 seed in each fruit. 



