MORE OF THE SMALLER BOG-PLANTS 249 



lives a small Aroid, with arrow-shaped leaves of glossy 

 green, and queer little chocolate blossoms, whose hood 

 prolongs itself into an immense feeler. The whole effect 

 of the flower is that of a mouse, with waving tail, diving 

 down some hole. Indeed the resemblance of Arisarum 

 proboscideum to the agitated hinder-end of an escaping 

 mouse is almost ridiculous. But this little plant, native 

 of such arid dry corners in so arid and dry a country, 

 must needs be of the most difficult culture in a moist cool 

 climate like mine ? Will it be believed that by one of 

 Nature's incalculable freaks, Arisarum proboscideum is 

 not only one of the best plants I know, but grows quite 

 beside itself in the most sopping parts of the bog; 

 forming into great mats and beds of emerald arrows, 

 among which the diving brown mice frisk and sport in 

 the most exciting manner, waving their tails in every 

 direction. And though not showy, this freakish little 

 weird plant stands very high in my affections, not only 

 for its rare quaintness, as for its unparalleled, unhoped-for 

 adaptability. I have it everywhere now, in a hundred 

 wet, damp, or dry, shady corners, always in rich soil, and 

 in every exposure. And always it does best of all in full 

 sun in the wettest marsh, though hardly less glossy and 

 triumphant on the rock-work under the shadow of great 

 boulders, in stiff' retentive ground. 



Of the other Aroids I have little to say. Arisarum 

 trvphyllum from Japan will be handsome when I have 

 succeeded in establishing it on good shady corners of the 

 rock. It grows a foot high or more, with one or two 

 very graceful three-cleft, claw-like leaves, and a long- 

 tailed flower like an exaggerated Arisarum. Larger still 

 is Arum crinitum, my only Arum, a magnificent foliage 

 plant for a very hot sheltered place in dry rich soil, 

 growing four feet high and more in a dense clump, and 

 emitting, in early summer, enormous flowers of a dense 



