Lily-kin and Rose-kin 143 
golden head is neither a petal nor a sisterhood of 
petals. It is a foliage-leaf, become big and beau- 
tiful in order to lure the marsh-flies of the calla’s 
native haunts to visit and fertilize its flowers; for 
the real flowers are not one, but legion. They 
have lost everything which ever belonged to them 
except a few stamens, or a few stamens and a 
pistil, as the case may be. They completely cover 
the column or spadix, which stands up inside the 
enfolding leaf, and in the calla of commerce they 
are so massed together that it is difficult to dis- 
tinguish them even with a lens. 
The calla’s past condition may be surmised from 
the present state of some of its humble cousins 
which are to be found around ponds and in bogs 
in the northern and central United States. 
In the sweet-flag or calamus, for instance, the 
flowers which crowd the spadix are perfect and 
complete (Fig. 32). 
Each has six flower-leaves, which are now re- 
duced to half-transparent greenish scales, six sta- 
mens, and a three-celled ovary enclosing several 
seeds (Fig. 33). 
By studying these flowers we see how a mass 
‘of perfect little lilies may have been altered into 
a mere club of stamens and pistils, 
