JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT. 



This, our best known representa- 

 tive of the Arum family, is very 

 abundant during spring in moist 

 woodlands. As its form shows, it is 

 a very close relative of the exquisite 

 Calla Lily. The handsomely striped 

 and veined exterior of what is often 

 considered the flower is known as a 

 spathe, and is the pulpit from which 

 Jack, represented by the vertically 

 projecting spadix, is supposed to 

 preach. The real flowers are small 

 and greenish-yellow, clustered about 

 the base of this spadix or smooth, 

 glossy green column. Some of these 

 plants have clusters of both stamin- 



ate and pistillate flowers and are self-fertilizing, but most 

 of them have either the one kind or the other and require 

 the assistance of insects in transferring pollen from the one 

 to the other. 



Some plants are so constructed as to welcome with open 

 arms the insects that are useful to them and to exclude all 

 others. Let us see how Jack treats his many visitors. The 

 column and the inside of the S2>athe are very slippery, and 

 the former has an abrupt enlargement in the middle leaving 

 just room between it and the sides so that visitors can 

 easily slide down the polished surface but can neither crawl 

 back nor find room to extend their wings in flight. If not 

 too large and they happen to find it, there is a small open- 

 ing in the lower flap of the spathe through which they may 

 force their way; insects so escaping, their bodies perhaps 

 dusted with pollen, forget the trap and immediately enter 

 another plant, perhaps a pistillate one and fulfill the de- 

 signs of our Jack, but at the cost of the lives of others not 

 so fortunate in finding the avenue of escape from the prison. 



The name Indian Turnip is often applied to this plant 

 since Indians used to boil and eat the acrid, turnip-like 

 roots. 



