474 



BOTANY 



snow-white (e.g. Richardia aethiopica), but more frequently purple or 

 brown, and in that case the inflorescence often emits a carrion-like 

 stench attractive to the insects by whose aid pollination is effected. 

 The fruit, with few exceptions, is a berry. 



Geographical Distribution. — The Araceae are found almost exclusively in 

 the Tropics, where they include numerous, often extremely grotesque, forms, which 

 have, not unfrequently, a gigantic size and constitute a very large part of the her- 

 baceous Flora of the primitive forests. Many species are terrestrial, growing 

 gregariously in the deep shade of the woods, while others climb by means of aerial 

 roots to the tops of the trees, or, as epiphytes, form large nest-like growths on their 



Fig. 413. — Spadix of Anm mamdatwrn. 

 (After Wossidlo.) 



Fro. 414. — Acoi-us Calamus. 1. Rhizome ; 2, inflores- 

 cence ; 3, flower ; 4, ovary in transverse section. — ■ 

 Oi'FraxAL. (After Wossidlo.) 



branches. The most remarkable of all the Araceae is Amorphophallus titanum, an 

 herb found in Western Sumatra ; it attains a height greater than that of a man, 

 developing enormous tubers, and a purple spadix nearly 1 J m. high. Several species 

 of Araceae are cultivated as ornamental plants, e.g. Richardia aethiopica, the so- 

 called Calla Lily, and the root-climber Monstera deliciosa. 



Poisonous. — Most of the Araceae are poisonous. Arum maculatum (Figs. 412, 

 413), a tuberous herb growing in woods, has a few hastate leaves, frequently with 

 brown spots, a greenish spathe and a fleshy spadix terminating in a naked, purple 

 club-shaped prolongation. The flowers are monoecious ; the female, at the base of the 

 spadix ; the male, forming a smaller, separate group above ; while still higher up 

 on the spadix are * few sterile flowers. In Calla palustris, Water Arum, a rare 



