Plants Growing In Mud: Bogs, 

 Swamps and Marshes. 



Over in the swamps life is gay and free ; for why should 

 they be dull when they may be merry, or why should they 

 throw out sparingly their bloom when their soil tells them to 

 send it out abundantly ? In its time and place each lovely 

 flower unfolds ; the turtle travels slowly back from the nearest 

 pond ; the blackbirds pipe and the oriole matches the tint of 

 his wing with the petals of the marigold. Grave willows 

 have a fatherly care of the sweet community, and, although 

 King Carnival pass up and down, disorder never reigns. 



SKUNK CABBAGE. 



Spathyema fatida. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Arum. Madder, purple, Disagreeable. Mostly north^ sparingly February- 

 yellow and green, -west and south. ' April. 



Flowers: inconspicuous; perfect; arranged upon an oval fleshy spadix 

 that is enveloped by a spathe. Spathe : shell-shaped, veined with purple. 

 Fruit: curious looking; the seeds form under the epidermis of the spadix, and 

 drop later into the ground, like little bulbs. Leaves : one to three feet long; 

 ovate ; veined ; appearing later than the flowers, from a short rootstock. 



" Foremost to deck the sun-warmed sod, 

 The Arum shows his speckled coil." 



Dame Nature has truly a warm heart, and when she deprives 

 us of one thing she usually bestows another. In her scheme of 

 wisdom she certainly saw fit to deprive the skunk cabbage of 

 fragrance ; and to such an extent that it has been doomed to 

 bear a rather unpoetical name. But it is a brave, powerful 

 plant, which pushes itself forward without fear of rebuff from 

 the frosts of February, or the biting March winds. Grim win- 



