Introduction to Botany. 



Tripsacum dactyloides, L. (Gr., daktylos, finger; eidos, resemblance.) Gama 

 Grass. Stems 4 to 8 feet tall; spikes single or several, branching from a common 

 base. One of our largest grasses. Moist soil. 



CYPERACE^. Sedge Family. 



Grasslike or rushlike herbs with fibrous roots ; sometimes perennial 

 by elongated rootstocks. Stems 3-4-angled, rounded or flattened, 

 usually solid. Leaves alternate and 3-ranked, sheathing at the base, 

 and not split open down one side as in grasses. Flowers perfect or 

 imperfect in i-many-flowered spikelets ; i flower in the axil of each 

 of the glumes or bracts. Style 2-3-cleft ; fruit an acheme, flattened, 

 lenticular, or 3-angled. Stamens usually 3. The chief genera are 

 Cypferus, Ele6charis, Sci'rpus, and Ckrex. (See Figs. 342-345.) 



ARACE.^. Arum Family. 



Herbs with long-petioled, simple, or compound leaves, rising from a 

 corm or tuberous rootstock ; sap usually very pungent. Flowers monoe- 

 cious or dicecious and densely crowded on a spadix which is usually 

 surrounded by a spathe (see Fig. 346). Stamens 4-10 with short fila- 

 ments ; ovary i -several-celled, with i-several ovules 

 in each cell. Fruit usually a berry. Sepals and 

 petals usually absent. 



ARISAEMA. Indian Turnip. Dragon Arum. 



(Gr., ariSi a kind of arum, and kaima, blood.) 



Leaves deeply divided, rising on long petioles 

 from a corm, and sheathing the base of the simple 

 scape. Flowers covering the lower part of an elon- 

 gated spadix ; spathe convolute below and over- 

 hanging above. (Fig. 346.) Flowers moncecious 

 or dioecious, destitute of calyx or corolla. Ovary 

 containing 5 or 6 orthotropous ovules rising from a 

 basal placenta. Fruit a globose red berry. 



Fig. 346. 



Infliirescenceof Aris- 

 Eema. ^, the spathe, 

 cut open below and 

 showing the flow- 

 ers clustered at the 

 base of the spadix, 



1. ArisEema triph^Uum, Torr. (L.,/////;i'//»»!, 3-leaved, 

 from Greek fri, three; phyllon, leaf.) iNDIAK TURNIP. 

 Jack-in-the-pulpit. Leaves 3-foliate with ovate, entire segments, Spathe green 

 with purple stripes, broad and overhanging at the summit. Rich woods. 



^, Arisaema Diacdntium, Schott. (Gr., drakon, snake, or dragon.) Green 



