OLASS XXI, ORDER VII. ] ARUM. 1203 
1. A. macula'tum, Linn. (Fig. 1461.) Cuckow-pint, or Wake-robin. 
Leaves radical, hastato-saggittate: lobes deflexed; spadix club- 
shaped, obtuse, shorter than the spatha. 
English Botany, t. 1298.—English Flora, vol. iv. p. 146.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4 vol. i. p. 347.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 246. 
Root fibrous, with a large fleshy tuberous underground stem, 
mucilaginous and acrid. Leaves large, bright green, often spotted 
with dark purple, paler beneath, hastate, with sagittate lobes at the 
base, deflexed, the footstalk channeled, and sheathing at the base. 
Scape round, smooth, erect, terminating in a large membranous pale 
green conyolute spatha, often spotted, and enveloping a spadia, which 
is shorter than the spatha, naked, club-shaped and purple above, at 
the base are inserted several circles of ovaries, above these are several 
circles of sessile two celled anthers, and over these are one or two rows 
of apparently abortive ovaries. Fruit a bright scarlet berry, remain- 
ing in an oblong crowded spike, after the leaves and spadix have 
decayed, each berry one celled, and many seeded. 
Habitat—Groves and hedges; frequent in England, rare in 
Scotland and Ireland. 
Perennial; flowering in April and May. 
The plants of the Natural Order Aroidew, to which our Arum be- 
longs, are remarkable for the property which they possess of being 
acrid and pungent in a fresh state, but when deprived of their 
juices are wholesome, and applicable as food. One of the most 
remarkable is the Dumb,Cane, Caladium seguinum, a native of the 
West Indies and South America. Sir W. J. Hooker, in Exot. Bot. 1. 
gives an account of a gardener who incautiously bit a piece off the 
Dumb Cane, when his tongue swelled to such a degree that he could 
not move it; he became utterly incapable of speaking, and was con- 
fined to the house for some days in the most excruciating torments. 
The same author also states that it is said to impart an indelible stain 
to linen. The fleshy underground stems possess similar properties in 
most of the species in a greater or less degree, as well as the leaves; 
yet when cooked they may be used as harmless food. The tubers of 
the A. maculatum are used in the Island of Portland, and about Wey- 
mouth, where the plant grows in great abundance: prepared by 
maceration, powdering and washing away the juice, the residue is 
a wholesome and nutritive article of food, sold wnder the name of 
Portland Sago. A. Dracunculus, a native of the South of Europe, is 
remarkable from the stalks of the leaves being spotted like the belly of 
some snakes; while the singular looking flower has the smell of 
carrion, being extremely disagreeable and foetid. 
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