42 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 
this point of view the plant will be treated in the subsequent 
pages. Peck (1. c.) describes the plant as follows: “Plants 
3 to 6 inches high; leaves usually solitary, the leaflets nar- 
rowed and pointed at the base, 12 to 18 lines long, 7 to 9 wide; - 
the upper part of the spathe commonly dark purple. Mill- 
brook, Dutchess county, June. The plants were in flower June 
15th; about a month later than the time of flowering cf the 
typical form of the species in the same locality.” No addi- 
tional characters are mentioned in Britton’s manual, and the 
habitat is given as ‘open sunny bogs New York.” 
Having had the opportunity to study the plant throughout 
the summer, and in localities where it occurs in abundance, 
I have observed several points in its external structure, by 
which it may be readily distinguished from the typical form. 
So far as cencerns the vicinity of Washington (Maryland and | 
Virginia) typical Arisaema triphyllum appears to be mostly 
-dioecious. It is a plant of rather robust habit, especially when 
compared with the var. pusilla (Fig. 1) at the corresponding 
state. The leaf-segments are elliptical-ovate, pointed, and they 
are very broad in young specinfens (Fig 4), which have not 
yet reached the flowering state. The relative length and width 
of the middle segment correspond well with those of the two, 
lateral. The color of the spathe varies from light green to 
dark purplish-brown or variegated with dark purple and 
whitish stripes or spots. 
Now with regard to the var. pusilla (Fig. 1) the plant is 
very slender with the scape frequently bent; the spathe and 
spadix are smaller than in the type, and the color of the spathe 
is most often dark purplish-brown to almost black or, though 
more seldom, pale green with no dark spots or stripes. The- 
staminate plant seems to be the most common, and I found 
no monoecious specimens. The staminate plants are gener- 
ally of a lower stature than the pistillate, but the color of the 
spathe varies in both. 
While the name “pusilla” is very appropriate to the plant, 
so far as concerns the small size of the leaves, spathe and 
spadix, when it appears above ground, the stem or floral 
scape, does not remain low, but grows rapidly, and may reach 
the height of 25 to 34 cm. in fruiting specimens, measured 
from the corm to the base of the spadix. The foliage may 
