THE ARUM TRIBE. 193 



diversified, that it can hardly be said to oflfer any 

 certain mark of recognition. The great and striking 

 feature of the natural order resides in the spathe and 

 spadix. As these terms are new to you, they must be 

 explained before we proceed further. 



A spathe is a leaf, usually coloured, but sometimes 

 green, which is rolled up round a spike of flowers ; it 

 is, in fact, a sort of large bract. 



A spadix is a fleshy spike, covered all over with 

 flowers, and enclosed in a spathe. 



In all Araceous plants, the flowers are collected 

 upon a spadix, and are enclosed in a spathe. Both 

 these parts, in particular species, have most extraor- 

 dinary appearances. The spathe, for example, is some- 

 times a foot and more in diameter, forming a huge 

 vegetable bell, of which the spadix would be the clap- 

 per, if the spathe were not erect ; it is often stained 

 with the deepest and richest colours ; and in some 

 cases it is extended on one side into a long slender 

 tail, very much like that of the calyx in the long- 

 tailed Birthwort. The spadix, on the other hand, is 

 either covered all over with flowers, in which case it 

 makes no unusual appearance, or it is naked at the 

 point and then assumes the strangest shapes, which some- 

 times, moreover, glow with all the colours of the spathe. 

 Thus in the Dragon- Arum it is a long purple horn, 

 standing up, and projecting from a large, deep-purple 

 spathe ; in others it hangs dowTi from the spathe 

 like a slender tail ; and in some cases it is enlarged 

 into a disgusting, fungus-like, livid excrescence. 



VOL. II. o 



