290 



THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



the pistillate with 1 sessile ovary which ripens into a red few-seeded 

 berry. Plants of spring or early summer, in rich woods. Tuber very 

 pungent, often used in domestic medicine. 



A. triphyllum, Torr. Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Common Indian Turnip. 

 Fig. 226. Leaves usually 2, each bearing 3 oblong-elliptic pointed leaflets : 

 spathe purple-striped, curving over the spadix. 



A Drac6ntium, Schott. Dragon-root . Leaf usually 1, with 7-11 narrow 

 oblong leaflets: spathe greenish, shorter than the spadix. 



2. SYMPLOCARPUS. Skunk Cabbage. 



Leaves and flowers arising from a strong rootstock, the lvs. very large 

 and appearing after the spathes : fls. perfect, each with 4 sepals, 4 stamens 

 and single ovary which is sunk in the fleshy spadix: fruit made up of the 

 fleshy spadix with imbedded fleshy seeds: spathe pointed and arching, in- 

 closing the spadix. Common in wet meadows in the north- 

 eastern states. 



S. foetidus, Salisb. Spathes purple, arising in the 

 earliest spring: leaves very large (often 2 ft. long), simple 

 and entire, ovate, in tufts. The tufted leaves and fetid 

 odor give the plant the name of skunk cabbage. 



3. RICHARDIA. Calla Lily. 



Leaves several from each short rootstock, their peti- 

 oles sheathing the flower-scape: flowers naked and diclin- 

 ous, the stamens above and the 3-loculed ovaries below on 

 the spadix: spathe large and showy, the top flaring and the 



base rolling about the spadix, Several species are 

 cultivated, but the following is the only common one: 



R. Africana, Kunth. Calla or Calla lily of gar- 

 dens. Fig. 427. Leaf-blades broadly arrow-shaped, 

 simple and entire, cross-veined, glossy: spathe white 

 and wax-like. Cape of Good Hope. 



4. CALLA. 



Differs from the above in having a spathe which 

 does not inclose the spadix, and mostly perfect flowers 

 (the upper ones sometimes staminate), each of (3 sta- 

 mens and 1 ovary: fruit a red berry. One species: 



C. palustris, Linn. True Calla. Fig. 428. Leaves 

 about 1 ft. high, the blades arrow-shaped: spathe about 2 In. long, white on 

 the upper" face. In cold bogs, north. 



427. Richardia 

 Africana. 



428. Calla palustris. 



IV. LILIACE^E. Lily Family. 



Herbs, with bulbs, corms, or large rootstocks: fls. mostly regular 

 and showy, the perianth of six separate or coherent parts, the stamens 

 usually six and standing in front of the parts of the perianth: ovary 



