428 ARACEJZ. (ARUM FAMILY.) 



antfosrs 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovary 1 -celled, with 5-6 erect anatro- 

 pous ovules : stigma sessile. Berries (red) distinct, few-seeded. Seeds with a 

 conspicuous rhaphe, and an embryo nearly the length of the hard albumen. A 

 low perennial herb, growing in cold bogs, with a creeping thickish rootstock, 

 bearing heart-shaped long-petioled leaves, and solitary scapes. (An ancient 

 name, of unknown meaning.) 



1. C. palustris, L. Cold bogs, New England to Penn., Wisconsin, 

 and common northward. June. Seeds surrounded with jelly. (Eu.) 



4. SYMPL.OCARPUS, Salisb. SKUNK CABBAGE. 



Spathe hooded-shell-form, pointed, very thick and fleshy, decaying in fruit, 

 Spadix globular, short-stalked, entirely covered with perfect flowers which are 

 thickly crowded and their (1 -celled or abortively 2-celled) ovaries immersed in 

 the fleshy receptacle. Sepals 4, hooded. Stamens 4, opposite the sepals, with 

 at length rather slender filaments : anthers extrorse, 2-celled, opening length 

 wise. Style 4-angled : stigma minute. Ovule solitary, suspended, orthotropous. 

 Fruit a globular or oval mass, composed of the enlarged and spongy spadix, en- 

 closing the spherical seeds just beneath the surface, which is roughened with the 

 persistent and fleshy sepals and pyramidal styles. Seeds filled by the large 

 globular and fleshy conn-like embryo, which bears one or several plumules at the 

 end next the base of the ovary : albumen none. Perennial herbs, with a strong 

 odor like that of the skunk, and also somewhat alliaceous ; a thick descending 

 rootstock bearing a multitude of long and coarse fibrous roots, and a cluster of 

 very large and entire veiny leaves, preceded by the nearly sessile spathes. 

 (Name from 007x77X0x17, connection, and Acaprros, fruit, in allusion to the coales- 

 cence of the ovaries, &c. into a compound fruit.) 



1. S. fwtidus, Salisb. Leaves ovate, hearfrshaped (l-2 long when 

 grown), short-petioled ; spadix much shorter than the spathe. (Ictodes, Bigel.) 

 Moist grounds ; common. March, April. Spathe spotted and striped with 

 purple and yellowish-green, ovate, incurved. Fruit ripe in September, forming 

 a roughened .globular mass 2' - 3' in diameter, in decay shedding the bulblet- 

 like seeds, which are J'-' in diameter, and filled with the singular solid fleshy 

 embryo. 



5. ORO3VTIUM, L. GOLDEN-CLUB. 



Spathe none. Flowers crowded all over a cylindrical spadix, perfect : the 

 lower with 6 concave sepals and 6 stamens ; the upper ones with 4. Filaments 

 flattened : anthers 2-celled, opening obliquely lengthwise. Ovary 1 -celled, with 1 

 amphitropous ovule : stigma sessile, minute. Fruit a green utricle. Seed with- 

 out albumen. Embryo thick and fleshy, " with a large concealed cavity at the 

 summit, the plumule curved in a groove on the outside." (Torr.) An aquatic 

 perennial, with a deep rootstock, long-petioled and entire nerved floating leaves, 

 and the spadix terminating the naked scape, which tliickens upward. (Origin 

 of the name obscure.) 



1. O. :i<iii;iticiini, L. Ponds, Massachusetts to Virginia, near the 

 coast, and southward. May. 



