14 ENGLISH ROTANY. 



obtuse, contracted a little way above the essential organs into a diameter 

 of the same tliickness as that of the rachis which bears them. Scape 

 lengthening in fruit, until it exceeds the petioles of the leaves, which 

 decay before the fruit changes from green to red. Berries rupturing 

 the withered base of the sj)athe as they increase in size, about the size 

 of currants, pale scarlet, in a compact oblong s])ike. Seeds usually 

 3 in each berry, more rarely 2, 4, or 1, subglobuhir, flattened on one 

 side, scarcely as large as coriander seed, brownish yellow, reticulated. 

 Leaves deep green, slightly shining, glabrous, concolorous or blotched 

 ■svith purplish black, paler and sj^rinkled with very minute pellucid 

 dots beneath. 



Common CiicJcoo-pint. 



French, Goiiet comnmn. German, Gq/lcclicr Aran. 



Can we wonder at tlie delights of country children with this curious plant, which 

 seems almost to be one of those things we constantly see in nature, designed to 

 iUustrate the grotesque as weU as the beautiful ? Its lai-ge handsome sjiathe, rising up 

 amidst the elegantly-shaped spotted leaves, forms a fitting shelter for the bright 

 coloured spadix or flower-stalk, the lord or lady, whichever it may be, within its pro- 

 tecting hood. The attractions of this curious plant do not cease with the early spring, 

 when the green leaves have faded away, and the lords and ladies and their habitation 

 are seen no more. The little bunch of seedlike bodies about half-way down the- 

 coloured spadix, which are, in fact, the pistils and seed-vessels, in the autumn of the 

 year assume a brilliant red colour, looking like a bunch of coral, as, amid the withering- 

 grass of some hedgeside, they attract the notice of the passer-by. Beware, however, 

 of being tempted to taste them ! The whole plant is acrid, pungent, and poisonous, 

 and cliildren have sufiered by eating the bright-coloured berries. The rhizomes contain 

 a sort of farinaceous substance, which, when freed from its acrid qiialitics, becomes a- 

 nutritious article of diet. Large quantities of it are collected in Portland island, and 

 on the dry and sunburnt districts on the banks of the Bristol Channel, and sold 

 under the name of Portland sago. It is largely used to adulterate arro\vroot. Dried 

 and powdered, the root is used by the French as a cosmetic and in a lotion. It is sold 

 at a high price, under the name of cyjiress powder. Dr. Withering quotes Wedelius 

 for the supposition that it was on this plant, under the name of cliara, that the soldiers 

 of Ca3sar's army subsisted when encamped at Dyrrachium. A curious belief is recorded 

 by Gerarde, as coming from Aiistotle, that bears, when half-starved with hybernating,, 

 having lain in their dens for forty days without any nourishment, but such as they 

 get by " sucking their paws," are completely restored by eating this plant. In severe 

 snowy ^\'inters, according to the observations of Mr. White, the roots are scratched 

 out of the dry banks of hedges, and eaten by thrushes. In France the plant bears, 

 the name of c/wu jioivre and pai'ii de lievre, as though eaten by hares. In some parts- 

 of Worcestershire the cuckoo-pint is known as " bloody men's fingers," and some- 

 wi-iters have supposed it to be the long purples of Shakspeare, rather than Orchid 

 mascula, though with less probability, we think. Medicinally the arum had at one- 

 time great reputation in common with other plants containing acrid or poisonous, 

 qualities. In rheumatism, gout, and even consumption, its virtues were vaunted, but>. 

 are now happily discarded. The arum is one of those plants which exhibit the 

 cui-ioua and interestiag fact of the vegetable evolution of heat, so evident, that for- 



