238 Gtiests Welcome and Unwelcome 



She catches and devours many, digesting them by 

 means of the sticky hairs which cover the inside of the 

 sheath. 



Most of the arums of the temperate zones blossom 

 early in the year, when the nights are still chilly 

 enough to make the prospect of a warm lodging 

 attractive. 



Blossoms breathe more rapidly than leaves, and are 

 always therefore a little the warmer. Buds just open- 

 ing breathe so fast, if they are large, like those of a 

 cucumber, that when they are isolated under a glass 

 containing a tiny thermometer, the mercury may be 

 seen to rise sometimes nearly two degrees. 



Many blossoms heat so much more than this, how- 

 ever, that the difference may be felt as well as seen. 

 This is thev case with the arums, whose so-called 

 blossom is really an assemblage of many blossoms. 

 In the common wild arum, ' lords and ladies,' the tem- 

 perature rises several degrees, but in the heart-leaved 

 arum of the Isle of Bourbon the temperature of the 

 sceptre, or spadix, has been known to rise to 95° F., 

 and nearly 102° F., and that, too, when the temperature 

 of the air was only 59' F. 



But the common Italian arum outdoes even its 

 tropical cousin, and its spadix becomes hotter than a 

 hot bath, its temperature being nearly 110° F. 



Arums are especially marsh-plants, and, though one 

 does not naturally associate the idea of warmth with 

 such cold creatures as snails, it seems that it is these 

 which are chiefly attracted to the arums of south 

 Europe, and, no doubt, of other parts of the world. 



One of the foreign arums grown in hot-houses for 

 the sak^ of their handsonie foliage was observ^cl one 



