428 



ARACE^. (arum family.) 



anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovary 1 -celled, with 5-6 erect anatro- 

 poas ovules : stigma sessile. Berries (red) distinct, few-seeded. Seeds with a 

 conspicuous rhaphe, and an embryo nearly the length of the hard albumen. — A 

 low perennial herb, growing in cold bogs, with a creeping thickish rootstock, 

 bearing heart-shaped long-petioled leaves, and solitary scapes. (An ancient 

 name, of unknown meaning.) 



1. C. palustris, L. — Cold bogs. New England to Penn., "Wisconsm, 

 and common northward. June. — Seeds surrounded with jelly. (En.) 



4. SYMPLiOCARPUS, Salisb. Skunk Cabbage. 



Spathe hooded-shell-form, pointed, very thick and fleshy, decaying in fruit. 

 Spadix globular, short-stalked, entirely covered with perfect flowers which ai-e 

 thickly crowded and their (1-celled or abortively 2-celled) ovaries immersed in 

 the fleshy receptacle. Sepals 4, hooded. Stamens 4, opposite the sepals, with 

 at length rather slender filaments : anthers extrorse, 2-ceIled, opening length 

 wise. Style 4-angled : stigma minute. Ovule solitary, suspended, orthotropous. 

 Fruit a globular or oval mass, composed of the enlarged and spongy spadix, en- 

 closing the spherical seeds just beneath the sm-face, which is roughened with the 

 persistent and fleshy sepals and pyramidal styles. Seeds filled by the large 

 globular and fleshy corm-like embi-yo, which bears one or several plumules at the 

 end next the base of the ovary : albumen none. — Perennial herbs, with a strong 

 odor like that of the skunk, and also somewhat alliaceous ; a thick descending 

 rootstock bearing a multitude of long and coarse fibrous roots, and a cluster of 

 veiy large and entire veiny leaves, preceded by the nearly sessile spathcs. 

 (Name from avfiitkoKr], connection, and Kapiros, fruit, in allusion to the coales- 

 cence of the ovaries, &c. into a compound fruit.) 



1. S. fcetidus, Salisb. Leaves ovate, heart-shaped (l°-2° long when 

 grown), short-petioled ; spadix much shorter than the spathe. (Ict6des, Bigd.) 

 — Moist grounds ; common. March, April. — Spathe spotted and striped with 

 purple and yellowish-green, ovate, incurved. Fniit ripe in September, forming 

 a roughened globular mass 2' -3' in diameter, in decay shedding the bulblet- 

 like seeds, which are J' - ^' in diameter, and filled with the singular soUd fieshy 

 embryo. 



5. ORONTIUOT, L. Golden-club. 



Spathe none. Elowers crowded all over a cylindrical spadix, perfect : the 

 lower with 6 concave sepals and 6 stamens ; the upper ones with 4. Filaments 

 flattened : anthers 2-celled, opening obliquely lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled, with 1 

 amphitropous ovule : stigma sessile, minute. Fruit a green utricle. Seed with- 

 out albumen. Embryo thick and fleshy, " with a large concealed cavity at the 

 summit, the plumule curved in a groove on the outside.'' (Torr.) — An aquatic 

 perennial, with a deep rootstock, long-petioled and entire nerved floating leaves, 

 and the spadix terminating the naked scape, which thickens upward. (Origin 

 of the name obscure.) 



1. O. aqil^ticum, L. — Ponds, Massachusetts to Virginia, near the 

 coast, and southwaj-d. May. 



