358 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



giant. At one time it was the great Rafflesia, 

 then the royal water-lily, and last, but not least, 

 the monster arum of Beccari. The one solitary 

 example of this family which belongs to our climate 

 is the little " wake-robin," or " lords and ladies '' 

 of our hedgerows. In the centre of the tuft of glossy 

 leaves rises the singular flower, or what is commonly 

 designated as the flower, but which really is a large 

 colony of minute flowers, surrounding the base of 

 an erect club-shaped column called a spadix, and 

 enclosed in a sheath or envelope, rising to a sharp 

 point and opening on one side so as to expose but 

 a glimpse of the column within. The root is a small 

 tuber, or corm, containing a quantity of starch, which, 

 during the time of Queen Elizabeth, was collected 

 for starching the " ruffles " of the court. Just such 

 a plant, on an enlarged scale, was discovered by the 

 Italian botanist in Sumatra. The tuber in this species 

 was five feet in circumference. The leaves, on foot 

 stalks ten feet in length, were much divided, and 

 covered an area of forty-five feet in circumfer- 

 ence. 1 The spadix, or central column, was nearly 

 six feet in height. The diameter of the spathe 

 was nearly three feet, of a bell shape, with crumpled 

 and deeply-toothed edges, of a pale greenish colour 

 within, and externally of a bright blackish purple. 



1 " Gardener's Chronicle," vol. x. (1878), p. 788. 



