266 ARUM MACULATUM AND ITS CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 
ov ary is also clothed with hairs. The insect to which you called 
pi attention had been caught and retained by these hairs; but I 
nnot discover any evidence that the capture of insects is any 
feelin of these hairs, or that there are any absorptive or digestive 
glan the substance of the ovule. ct piped preserved 
several specimens in aoe for “oe examination when I am 
ther more at leisure.’””’ Mr. Bennett has ites been kind enough 
to send us an east: from the Ttalian J ournal of Botany,* to the 
- that G. Arcangeli — observed the rise of temperature, &c., 
n several species of Aracee, but does sare ae that there is 
sufficient i eana _ warrant the —— of carnivorous habits 
in these plants, there being a complete absence of any a ST 
fluid and of any ie oka garde | in the spathe. Under all 
the circumstances, it seems as if some other explanation than that 
of 2 8 mt elem would ate to be sought for 
fter the escape of the flies the spathe very quickly begins to 
rey and we believe that very few last more than twenty-four 
when mature, it only uses hours, which may be cited as 
an ex e 0 Siar 6 care exercised b plants to ensure the 
production of offspring ries rapidly swell and continue 
growing until, about the end of June, they reach the size of large 
peas, and burst the dry saiee bulb of the spathe. These ovaries 
contain Senet two or three seeds each, and they remain on the 
ri 
oon seen in hedge-bottoms after the leaves have fallen. At the 
beginning of winter the rotting of ae base of the stalk causes it “ 
fall to the ground, when the berries become detached. We hav 
never yet detected any bird eating whuse berries, but, judging Hen 
their attractive colour, it is Lodges that they are habitually eaten 
by some species. The leaves last suffic rapes ‘ong to enable the 
root to cee in a store of gacitions matter for in the following 
spring, but before midsummer they have Sin so F euntistely rotted 
away as to be scarcely discoverable in places where, a few months 
earlier, they were a nt. 
In spite of all these precautions for ensuring the production of 
ts p: 
know what the cause of this may be. At any rate it seems, from 
Mr. Christy’s observation, that the plant is so strongly protero- 
cover 
before ening, be removed ‘the spadices, both died; but two 
from which, before Ppening, he removed the anthers, and one 
* Nuoy. Giorn. Bot. Teak xv. (1882), pp. 72—97. 
