ARUM TRIBE. 553 



side into a long slender tail. The spadix is sometimes completely 

 covered with flowers ; but in other species (as in that of Britain) 

 it is bare of flowers at its upper part ; and it then not unfre- 

 quently assumes very strange shapes and lively colours. In the 

 Dragon- Arum of our gardens, it is a long purple horn, projecting 

 from a large deep purple spathe ; in others it hangs down from 

 the spathe like a slender tail ; and in some cases it is enlarged 

 into a fungus-like excrescence of disagreeable appearance. 



730. If we open the spathe of the common spotted Arum, 

 B A c we should find it to be 



whitish in its interior, 

 and closely enveloping 

 the lower part of the 

 Spadix. On detaching the 

 latter from it, we find at 

 the bottom several tiers of 

 round ovaria, which do 

 not possess any proper 

 style or stigma, but have 

 a sort of puckering at 

 their points, which serves 

 the purpose of the latter. 

 Each is one-celled, and 

 contains two erect ovules. 



FIG. 197ARUM MACULATUM. A, spathe with J^ Qve fa ese are two Qr 



spadix enclosed ; B, spadix separated, showing a, 



ovaria; b and d, abortive ovaria ; c, staminiferous three TOWS ot abortive 



flowers ; e, naked part of the spadix ; C, cluster or Undeveloped Ovaria, in 



of berries ripened on the spadix. the form of horned pear . 



shaped bodies. Above these, again, there is a crowd of stamens 

 with very short filaments ; and these are surmounted by another 

 cluster of abortive ovaries. Here, we have a large cluster of 

 pistilliferous and staminiferous flowers, in which the floral enve- 

 lopes are entirely wanting, and in which, therefore, the separate 

 flowers can scarcely be distinguished. Each ovarium, however, 

 is the essential part of a pistilline flower ; whilst every cluster 

 of anthers is the essential part of a stamineous flower ; so that 



