SPECIAL EXERCISES ON TYPICAL FLOWERS 207 



common belief that this plant was eaten by the Indians? 

 Taste a corm after cooking it. Does heat have any effect on 

 it ? The name Indian turnip is often applied to this plant. 

 Test it with iodine and see whether starch is present. 



Study the inflorescence. The flowers are situated at the 

 base of a club-shaped spadix and are surrounded by a broad 

 leaflike spathe which arches over the flower cluster. Turn 

 back the spathe and examine the parts within. 



What is the color of the spathe ? Are all spathes colored 

 alike? Are the flowers perfect or imperfect? Have they 

 calyx and corolla? 



Cut open a spathe, removing a part of the lower side so 

 as to expose the essential organs. 1 



Make drawings of (1) the plant, (2) a spathe, side view, 

 (3) front view, (4) the spadix with spathe removed. 



Suggestion. Observe the plant all through the season. 

 Of what use is the spathe? What becomes of the spathe? 

 What insects visit this flower ? What kind of fruit does the 

 ripened cluster of pistils become? When does it mature? 

 What is its color ? Gather some of the ripened fruit in Octo- 

 ber or November and plant them in damp soil in winter. 

 Their germination is very interesting. 



Note. Jack-in-the-pulpit corms may be dug in autumn and 

 planted in a window box where they will bloom in winter. For 

 other plants having a spathe and spadix study the common water 

 arum, skunk cabbage, golden club, and sweet flag. 



They are all spring flowers. Many strange and beautiful spadi- 

 cious plants are to be seen in conservatories. 



1 A study of many specimens of Jack-in-the-pulpit will discover 

 the fact that some are all staminate, others are all pistillate, and 

 some, by far the greater number, contain flowers of both sorts. 

 Plants having all three kinds are known as polygamous. See also 

 Note, Experiment 163. 



