EARLY SPRING FLOWERS. 349 



change to pinkish, the first evidence of decline. Finally they 

 wither, and during the summer the fruit and seed are formed on 

 the old flower stem, while the secret formative processes of the 

 new blossoms are going on anew. 



633. The adder-tongue (erythronium) comes out early in 

 the spring to catch the sunlight gleaming through rifts in the 

 woodland. It is not so forbidding as its name or its ' ' darting ' ' 

 style would suggest. The rich color of its curved petals nodding 

 from the fork of the variegated leaves lends cheer and brightness 

 to the gray carpet of forest leaves. We are apt to associate the 

 formation of the flower with the early springtime. But after the 

 flower perishes, the bulb, deep in the soil, slowly builds the next 

 season's flower, which is kept through the autumn and winter, 

 much of the time encased in ice, waiting for springtime that it 

 may rise and unfold. 



634. Indian-turnip. — The " Indian-turnip," or " jack-in-the- 

 pulpit " (Arisasma triphyllum), loves the cool, shady, rich, allu- 

 vial soil of low grounds, or along streams, or on moist hillsides. 

 A group of the jacks is shown in figure 45 7 as they occur in the 

 rich soil on dripping rocks in one of our glens. At their feet is 

 a carpet of moss. Often the violet sits humbly underneath its 

 spreading three-parted leaves. The thin, strap-shaped spathe, 

 unfolded at its base, bends gracefully over the spadix, the sterile 

 end of which stands solitary in the pulpit thus formed. The 

 flowers are very much reduced, and the plants are ' ' dimorphic ' ' 

 usually. 



635. Female plants. — The large plants usually bear the pistil- 

 late flowers, which are clustered around the base of the spadix, 

 each flower consisting of a single pistil, oval in form, terminat- 

 ing in a brush-like stigma. The stigma consists of numerous 

 spreading, delicate hairs. The open cavity of the short style is 

 hairy also, and a brush of hairs extends into the cavity of the ovary. 

 Into this brush of internal hairs the necks of the several ovules 

 crowd their way to the base of the style near its opening. Even 

 when the stigma is not pollenated the ovary continues to grow in 

 size, and the stigmatic brush remains fresh for a long time. 



