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set aside in a bucket of water, as of little further use. In less 

 than a week after bringing them in about six leaves were fully 

 uncurled and widely spread. 



The leafage of the plant is quite interesting. Soon after the 

 blossoms appear, a small whitish shoot is seen forcing its way 

 above ground. On going one can see that it consists of two 

 almost whitish sheathing leaves. These show the monocotyle- 

 donous character in having parallel veining. Closely rolled inside 

 of these are the true leaves. They form a light hard-coiled 

 center. The tips, when they have broken through the enveloping 

 sheath-like leaves, are frequently colored purplish like the 

 spathe of the plant. Such coloring may show on the outside 

 of the tip of the first and even the second leaves. These inner, 

 or true, leaves seem to break away from the monocotyledonous 

 and tend toward the netted veining of dicotyledonous plants. 

 The first three leaves unfolding show a gradual transition toward 

 the netted veining of the later leaves. In all the cases the veining 

 is palmately netted. Also in specimens planted under dry con- 

 ditions, in a pot in a frame, and those under moist conditions, 

 the plants grown under dry conditions tended to show the netted 

 veining earlier than those of the moist environment. 



The leaves when fully developed are quite large, being some- 

 times over a foot in length and at least eight or nine inches broad. 

 They have an entire margin and are of a bright green color, rather 

 shiny in appearance. They grow rankly in a rosette form, in the 

 damp stream beds. Their great size makes them very con- 

 spicuous. 



In a microscopical study the leaves show rather large air 

 chambers and loosely packed cellular structures. Throughout 

 the leaf are various rhaphides occurring in the large bundle 

 masses. There are also several other types of crystals, a few 

 cuboidal in shape, and even some spherical in shape may be 

 found scattered loosely here and there — sphaerocrystals. 



Juice. — The juice of the skunk cabbage is very bitter and 

 acrid. This when tasted in the fresh plant had a peculiar garlic- 

 like taste and seemed biting. By biting I mean the prickly 

 sensation very much like that experienced on eating the root of 



