JULY 155 



to intoxication, and fall to the ground ; but afterwards 

 recover and fly away. The bees imprisoned within the 

 tubes invariably perish from the stupefying fumes. 



The last plant which I shall mention is the hairy 

 arum (Arum crinituni), which produces the most 

 repulsive flowers with which I am acquainted ; repulsive 

 alike in aspect and in odour, for the enormous hairy hood 

 or spathe, enclosing the livid spadix, gapes like a wound 

 eight or ten inches long, and emits the odour of carrion. 

 Blowflies are attracted by the smell, and deposit their 

 eggs, in the belief, I suppose, that the flower is putrescent 

 meat ; but no fly that enters that chamber of death is 

 allowed to depart ; the interior of the flower becomes 

 choked with corpses, in which maggots are hatched to 

 devour the bodies of their parents, and to assist, I fancy, 

 by their movements the fertilisation of the ovaries on the 

 spadix. It may be added that this plant will not with- 

 stand British winter cold except in the south and west, 

 but may be grown in the same way as dahlias and gladioli. 



XXXVII 



Nimium ne crede colori ! Neither countenance nor 

 complexion can be trusted as an index to The Lump- 

 character. One of the most ardent and con- sucker 

 sistent advocates of teetotalism I have ever known was 

 afflicted with a nose of bacchanalian dimensions and 

 colour, and the modern bull-dog belies his appearance 

 by proving one of the mildest of mammals. Still, 

 being guided unconsciously by feature and expression 

 in estimating the disposition of our fellow creatures, we 



