177 



ARROW-HEAD. SAGITTARIA. 

 COMMON ARROW-HEAD. Sagittaria sagittifolia. 



Plate 14, fig. 6. 



Abundant in ditches and rivers ; a fine curious plant, growing 

 two or three feet above the water, and producing large white 

 flowers, of three petals each, inclosed in a calyx of three leaves. 

 Some of the flowers have very numerous pointals, collected 

 into a head. Leaves, when under water, long and strap - 

 shaped, but as soon as they rise above the surface, the lower 

 part of them becomes rounded into a foot-stalk, and the upper 

 part expanded, until it becomes perfectly arrow-shaped. It 

 flowers in July and August. 



CUCKOO-PINT. ARUM. 

 CUCKOO-PINT. WAKE ROBIN. Arum maculatum. 



Plate 14, fig. 7. 



This plant not only deserves but receives universal attention, 

 on account of its very peculiar structure. The leaves are 

 spotted, all from the root, and somewhat arrow-shaped, but 

 not exactly so. They rise from the ground very early in the 

 season, and soon after they have expanded, that is in April, 

 or May, there appears amongst them a long, upright, light 

 green sheath, which is rolled up, and at the lower part swelled 

 out, and joined to a short, thick, fleshy stem gradually this 

 sheath unfolds, and then displays one of the most singular 

 looking, club-shaped bodies. The upper part of this is like 

 velvet, and of a pink, or more commonly mulberry color, 

 growing darker as it gets older ; a little lower down is a belt 

 of imperfect stamens, then another belt of two -called anthers 

 or true stamens, and below these at a little distance a belt of 

 germens or young seed-vessels. After a time the upper part 

 of the spike and the sheath dies away, an$ the germens grow 

 into a cluster of most beautiful scarlet berries, which remain 

 all the Winter. These are poisonous and so are the leaves, 

 but if the root be properly dried it makes a very nutritious 

 food, and as such it is used by the people of Portland Island 

 on the coast of Devonshire. They also grind it into a flour, 

 when it is sold under the names of Portland Sago. Children 

 call the plant Lords and Ladies. 



