Mr. Grant Aliens Botanical Fables 7 



people will recognize the large hooded blossom with 

 a pink or pale-green knob in its midst, which Mr. 

 Allen tells us is now known to be one of the earliest 

 flower-forms still surviving upon earth. 1 Certainly, if 

 this be so, the history which he proceeds to give of 

 it goes to show that much development has not served 

 to make more modern creatures a match for this crafty 

 and malignant antediluvian vegetable. 



But before we trace the grimmer features of its 

 character, there is a question as to its fertilization 

 on which popular writers seem now agreed, but which 

 may afford some profitable study. Sir John Lubbock 2 

 tells us, at great length, that it is of advantage for 

 a blossom to have the stigmas of its pistil fertilized 

 by pollen from another plant, and he cites the Arum 

 as an illustration of the way in which this is brought 

 about. This plant is monoecious % , that is, it has stamens 

 and pistils in different flowers, but on the same plant. 

 These are arranged on the lower part of the knob 

 already mentioned, the large green hood being no 

 part of the flower proper, but a sort of envelope and 

 protection. On this central knobbed column are ar- 

 ranged, beginning from the bottom, first the pistillate, 

 then the staminate flowers, and then a number of 

 threadlike stalks, of which botanists a short time ago 

 did not profess to know the meaning. Now, however, 

 we are told by both Mr. Grant Allen and Sir J. 

 Lubbock that they act as a chevaux de frise to close 

 up the entrance of the cup in which the flowers 

 below are placed, for these hairs point downwards, 

 and the envelope is much contracte'd just about their 

 position. Consequently, says Mr. Allen, they serve 

 as the spikes in an eel-trap or lobster-pot. 



This being so, what happens in the case of the 

 Arum, we are told, is this. The pistillate blossoms 

 flower first, in consequence of which the first Arum 

 of the season must go without pollen, and therefore 



1 Evolutionist^ p. 84. 

 2 British Wild Flowers in relation to Insect s t p. 28. 



