( 



AT^ZSl FAMILY. J \317 



112. ARACEiE, ARUM FAMILY. ^ 



Plants with pungent or acrid watery juice, leaves mostly with 

 veins reticulated so as to resemble those of the first class, flowers 

 in the fleshy head or spike called a spadix, usually furnished with 

 the colored or peculiar enveloping bract called a spathe. 



There are several stove-plants of the family now rather common 

 in choice coUectionsT mostly species and varieties of Caladium, cul- 

 tivated for their colored and variegated foliage. 



§ 1. Leaves with expanded blade, and with spreading nerves or veins, never linear. 

 * Fbjfwers wholly destitute of calyx and corolla. 



1. ARIS^MA. Leaves compound, only one or two, with stalks sheathing the 



simple stem, which rises from a fleshy corm, and terminates in a long spadix 

 bearing flowers only at its base, where it is enveloped by the convolute lower 

 part of the greenish or'purplish spathe. Sterile flowers above the fertile, 

 each of a few sessile anthers ; the fertile each a 1-celled 5-6-ovuled ovary, 

 in fmit becoming a scarlet berry: commonly dicecipus, the stamens being 

 abortive in one plant, the pistils abortive in the other. 



2. COLOCASIA. Leaves simple, peltate, and with a notch at the base. Spathe 



convolute, yellowish, much longer than the 'spadix : the latter covered witli 

 ovaries at base, above with some abortive rudiments, still higher crowded 

 with numerous 6 - 8-celled sessile anthers, and the pointed summit naked. 



3. PELTANDRA. Leaves arrow-shaped; these and the scape from a tufted 



fibrous root. Spathe convolute to the pointed apex, green, wavy-margined. 

 Spadix long and tapering, covered completely with flowers, i. e. above with 

 naked shield-shaped antiiers'each of 5 or 6 cells, opening by a hole at the 

 top, below with one-celled ovaries bearing several erect ovules, in fruit a 

 1 - -S-seeded fleshy l)ag. Seeds obovate, surrounded by a tenacious jelly. 



4. EICHARDIA. Leaves arrow-shaped ; these and the long scape from a short 



tuberous rootstock. Spathe broad, spreading above, bright white, convolute 

 at base around the slender cylindrical spadix, which is densely covered above 

 with yellow anthers, below with ovaries, each incompletely 3-ceUed, and con- 

 taining several hanging ovules. 



5. CALL A. Leaves heart-shaped, on long petioles ; these and the peduncles from 



a creeping rootstock. Spathe open, the upper face bright white, spreading 

 widely at the base of the oblong spadix, which is wholly covered with 

 flowers;'the lower ones perfect, having 6 stamens around a 1-celled ovary; 

 the upper often of stamens only. Berries red, containing a few oblong seeds, 

 surrounded with jelly. 



* * Flowers with, a perianth, perfect, covering the while spadix. 



6. SYMPLOCAEPUS. Leaves ovate, very large and veiny; short-petioled, ap- 



pearing much later than the flowers from a fibrous-rooted corm or short 

 rootstock. Spathe shell-shaped, ovate, incurved, thick, barely raised out of 

 ground, enclosing the globular spadix, in which the flowfers are as it were 

 nearly Immersed. Each flower has 4 hooded sepals, 4 stamens with 2-celled 

 anthers turned outwards, and a 1-celled l-ovu)ed ovary tipped with a short 

 awl-shaped style : the fruit is the enlarged spongy spadix under the rough 

 surface of which are imbedded large fleshy seeds. 



§ 2. Leaves linear, Jlag-like, nerved: spadix appearing lateral. 

 1. ACORUS. Spadix cylmdrioal, naked, emerging from the side of a 2-edged 

 simple scape resembling the leaves, densely covered with perfect flowers. 

 Sepals 6, concave. Stamens 6, with linear' filaments and kidney-shaped an- 

 tliers. Ovafy 2 - 3-celled, with several hanging ovules in each cell, becoming 

 dry in firuit, ripening only one or two small seeds. 



AIlIS.aiMA, INDIAN TURNIP, &c. (Name altered from Arum, to 

 which these plants were formerly referred.) Wild plants of rich woods, fl. 

 in spring, veiny-leaved, their turnip-shaped corm farinaceous, but imbued 

 with an intensely pungent juice, which is dissipated in drying. IJ. 

 A. triph^llum. Common Indian Turnip. In rich woods ; leaves mostly 

 2, each of 3 oblong pointed leaflets ; stalks and spathe either green or variegated 

 Vith whitish and dark-purple stripes or spots, the latter with broad or flat 

 slimmit incui-ved over the top of the club-shaped and blunt spadix. 



