318 CAT-TAIL FAHIILY. 



A. I)rae6ntium, Dragon-Ahum, Dbagon-hoot, or Ghebn Dragox. 

 Low grounds; leaf mostly solitary, its petiole l°-2° long, bearing 7-U 

 pcdate lance-oblong pointed leaflets ; the greenish spathe wholly rolled into a 

 tube with a short slender point, very much shorter than the long and tapering 

 tail-like spathe. ^ 



2. COLOCASIA. (The ancient Greek name of the common species.) % 

 C. antiqudrum, one variety called C. escolenta ; cult, in the hot parts 



of the world for its farinaceous thick rootstocks (which are esculent when the 

 acrid principle is driven off by heat, as also the leaves), and in gardens for its 

 magnificent foliage, the pale ovate-arrow-shaped leaves being 2° - 3° long when 

 well grown ; the stalk attached much below the middle, the notch not deep. 



3. PELTANDEA, ARUOW-AKXJM. (Name of Greek words meaning - 

 shield-shaped stamen, from the form of the anthers.) Fl. summer, y 



P. Virginica. Shallow water : l°-2°high; leaves pale; the fine trans- 

 verse nerves running from the midrib and netted with 2 or 3 longitudinal ones 

 near the margin ; scapes recurved in fruit ; top of the spathe and spadix 

 rotting off, leaving the short fleshy base firmly embracing the globular cluster 

 of green berries. 



4. mCHAKDIA. (Named for the French botanist, /;. C. iJMarrf.) 2^ 

 R. Africana, the -Ethiopian or Egyptian Cai.la, of common house- 

 culture, but a native of the Cape of Good Hope and not a true Calla, — too 

 familiar to need fuller description. 



5. CALLA, "WATER ARUM. (An ancient name.) Fl. early summer, y. 

 C. pallistris. Cold and wet bogs from Penn. N. : a low and small, ratlier 



handsome plant ; leaves 3'— 4' long ; filaments slender ; anthers 2-celled. 



6. SYMPLOCARPUS, SKUNK CABBAGE. (Name of Greek words 

 foT fruit grown together. ) y. 



S. foetidus, the only species, in swamps and wet woods, mostly N. : send- 

 ing up, in cirliest spring, its purple-tinged or striped spathe enclosing the head 

 of flowers, and later the largo leaves, when full grown 1° - 2? long, in a cabbage- 

 iike tuft ; the fruit 2' -3' in diameter, the hard bulle^likc seeds almost J' wide, 

 ripe in autumn. 



7. ACORUS, SWEET FLAG or CALAMrS. (Ancient name, from 

 the Greek, said to refer to the use as a remedy for sore eyes.) 21 



1. A. Calamus, Common Sweet-Flag : in wot grounds ; sending up the 

 2-edged sword-shaped leaves, 2° or more high, from tlie horizontal pungent 

 aromatic rootstock : fl. eai'ly summer. 



113. TYPHACEiE, CAT-TAIL FAMILY. 



Marsh herbs, or some truly aquatic, with linear and straight- 

 nerved erect (unless floating) long leaves, sheathing at base, and 

 monosflious flowers on a dry spadix, destitute of calyx and corolla; 

 the fruit dry and nut-like, 1 -seeded, rarely 2-seeded. 



Near to this belongs Pandanus, cult, for its foliage in some con- 

 servatories, with prickly toothed leaves crowded on woody stems. 



1. TYPHA. Flowers indefinite, in a dense cylindrical spike terminating the long 



and simple reed-like stem ; the upper part of stamens only, mixed with long 

 hairs; the lower and thicker part of slender-stalked ovnriVs tapering into a 

 style and below surrounded by numerous club-shaped bristles, which forai 

 the copious down of the fi-uit. 



2. SPARGANIUM. Flowers collected in separate dense beads, scattered along 



tlie summit of the leafy stem; the upper ones of stamens only with tome 



