242 Floivers and their Pedigrees. 



elements of floral architecture we are now pretty fami- 

 liar from our previous examination of other plants. 



On top -of all, however, come a group of very 

 peculiar blossoms, found only in the arum and no- 

 where else, and consisting of several little green 

 knobs, like those of the pistil-bearing flowers, but 

 each crowned by a long hair or filament, bent down- 

 wards towards the base of the hood or sheath, and 

 very much larger than the sensitive surface of the 

 lower blossoms. The origin and meaning of these 

 peculiar organs we will come to consider later on : for 

 the present it will be sufficient to observe their shape 

 and position, and to notice that their hairs point 

 downward and inward like the spikes of a lobster pot, 

 at a point exactly corresponding to the narrowest 

 neck or throat of the inclosing sheath. 



And now, how did the cuckoo-pint come to possess 

 this very singular arrangement of tiny separate flowers 

 in a close spike, female below, male in the centre, and 

 neuter or rudimentary on the top of all } To answer 

 this question properly, we must go back to the earlier 

 ancestors of the arum tribe — and I may as well start 

 fair by saying at once that the arums are by descent 

 degenerate lilies, like wheat, and that each of these 

 very degraded little flowers really represents a primi- 

 tive full-blown and bright-coloured lily blossom. You 



