VI 

 MISCELLANEOUS 



SKUNK CABBAGE. SWAMP CABBAGE 



Symplocarpus f&tidus* Arum Family. 



Leaves. Large, becoming one or two feet long ; heart-shaped, appearing 

 later than the purple-mottled spathe and hidden flowers. Flowers. Small 

 and inconspicuous ; packed on the fleshy spike which is hidden within the 

 spathe. 



If we are bold enough to venture into certain swampy places 

 in the leafless woods and brown cheerless meadows of March, we 

 notice that the sharply pointed spathes of the skunk cabbage 

 have already pierced the surface of the earth. Until I chanced 

 upon a passage in Thoreau's Journal under date of October 3ist, 

 I had supposed that these "hermits of the bog" were only 

 encouraged to make their appearance by the advent of those first 

 balmy, spring-suggestive days which occasionally occur as early 

 as February. But it seems that many of these young buds had 

 pushed their way upward before the winter set in, for Thoreau 

 counsels those who are afflicted with the melancholy of autumn 

 to go to the swamps, ' ' and see the brave spears of skunk-cabbage 

 buds already advanced toward a new year. " " Mortal and human 

 creatures must take a little respite in this fall of the year," he 

 writes. * ' Their spirits do flag a little. There is a little question- 

 ing of destiny, and thinking to go like cowards to where the 

 t weary shall be at rest. But not so with the skunk-cabbage. Its 



withered leaves fall and are transfixed by a rising bud. Winter 

 and death are ignored. The circle of life is complete. Are 

 these false prophets ? Is it a lie or a vain boast underneath the 

 skunk-cabbage bud pushing it upward and lifting the dead leaves 

 with it?" 



The purplish shell-like leaf, which curls about the tiny flowers 

 which are thus hidden from view, is a rather grewsome-looking 



276 



