crew of the ' Bountv,' which had been sent Isle of Wight 



out under the command of Lieut. Bligh to 

 procure bread-fruit trees, at the earnest 

 request of Captain Cook, and the natural- 

 ists who accompanied him in his voyages. 

 The first attempt was frustrated by the 

 mutiny of the crew after the plants had 

 been procured, and all promised well. A 

 second attempt, four years subsequently, 

 proved successful. 



The Jack, A. intecjri folia, is a native of 

 the Indian Archipelago ; it produces a fruit 

 like that of the above-named kind, but the 

 leaves are not at all lobed or divided. It is 

 cultivated in Southern India and all the 

 warm parts of Asia. The fruit is a favourite 

 article of food among the natives, as also 

 are the roasted seeds. The timber is much 

 used for making furniture ; it is at first of 

 a pale colour, but subsequently becomes 

 r dark, approaching to a mahogany tint. 

 Bird-lime is manufactured from the juice. 

 A. hirsvia, 'a native of Malabar, possesses 

 similar qualities. A. incisa is shown in 

 Plates 2a and 7e. [M. T. M.] 



ARUM. A genus of plants of the family 

 Aracece, known by having a large spathe, 

 whose edges are rolled over one another 

 at the base. The flowers are unisexual, and 

 placed on a fleshy spike or spadix, which 



a much larger plant 



than the common^. maculatum,the leaves, 

 with white veins, have the lobes at the 

 base spreading more widely than in 

 that species, and the spathe is rolled 

 backwards at the point as the flowers 

 ripen. 



The root of A. montanum is used in 

 India to poison tigers. The roots of A. 

 lyratiim furnish an article of diet to the 

 natives of the Circar mountains. They 

 require, however, to be carefully boiled 

 several times, and dressed in a particular 

 manner, to divest them of a somewhat dis- 

 agreeable taste. 



All the species of Arum, and those of 

 allied genera, such as Ariscema, Colocasia, 

 Caladium, Amorplwphallus and others, pos- 

 sess a similar combination of extremely 

 acrid properties, with the presence of 

 a large quantity of farina, which can be 

 separated from the poisonous ingredient 

 by heat or water, or by merely drying in 

 some instances. 



A. Dracunculus is commonly cultivated 

 in gardens for the sake of its large pedate 

 leaves, its spotted stem, and purple spadix. 

 The smell is fetid, and apt to produce 

 headache. The Arums have been made 

 use of in experimenting upon vegetable 

 heat, as by reason of the investing spathe, 



s club-shaped and destitute of flowers at | the heat generated by the flowers does not 

 the summit, but at the lower portion : so easily escape as in other plants, and 



bears male flowers or stamens, oonsistins 

 merely of anthers, opening by lateral slits, 

 unprovided with filaments, and not in- 



| vested by a perianth. Between the male 

 flowers and the female are a number of 

 abortive flowers having the appearance 

 of threads or hairs. Quite at the base of 

 the spadix the female flowers are placed ; 

 these consist merely of ovaries, containing 

 two to six ovules, andripening into a berry- 

 like fruit. 

 The common Arum of the hedges (A. ma- 



j culatum), or, as it is commonly called, 

 Lords and Ladies, or Wake Robin, is an ex- 

 tremely acrid poisonous plant, but by dry- 



its degree can the more readily be ascer- 

 tained. Moreover, it appears that these 

 plants really do generate more heat than 

 other flowers ; for instance, a difference of 

 more than 50° is recorded between the 

 temperature of the air and that of the 

 flowers of A. cordifolium. [M. T. M.] 



ARUM, ARROW. Peltandra virginica 

 —, WATER. Calla palustris. 



(Fr.) Bichardia 



ARUM D'ETHIOPIE. 



(Ethiopica. 



ARUXDIXA. Reed-like terrestrial or- 

 chids, with slender stems and narrow 



; ing, or the agency of heat, the acrid matter r ftbed leaves. The flowers are large, thin, 



is destroyed. It has a whitish rootstock 



richly coloured with rose or purple, but 



from which proceed ovate arrow-shaped Yery fugitive. Three or four species are 

 green leaves ^frequently marked with dark : known . all inhabitants of tropical Asia, 

 blotches and placed on long stalks ; the The genus is nearly allied to Bletia. 

 spathe is green. The spadix is of various 



shades of purple, or more rarely of a dull I ARUXDrNARIA. A genus of grasses 

 yellowish colour. When the fruits are ! belonging to the tribe Bambusidce. The 

 ripe, they are of a brilliant red colour, and ! species are either of a shrubby or arbores- 

 very conspicuous, at not only the tops of j cent nature, with strong jointed stems, 

 the spadix, but also the investing spathe j resembling those of the bamboo cane. 

 wither, and fall off as the fruit attains to ' t 1 *^-" <>i-o ™ n «h, ivr,™ +v, Q wc,™^,- mvt c rvF 



maturity. From the tubers of this plant, 

 in the Isle of Portland, a starch called 

 Portland Arrowroot was formerly exten- 

 sively prepared by pounding the tubers 

 with water, and then straining. On allow- 

 ing the strained liquid to stand the starch 

 was deposited. Care was necessary from 



They are mostly from the warmer parts of 

 the globe, and in some instances attain a 

 great size, where they grow spontaneously. 

 A. falcata is one of the hardiest kinds, 

 being able to bear the cold of ordinary win- 

 ters in Britain, especially in the southern 

 counties of England and Ireland. In the 

 county of Cork, several brakes were planted 



the extremely acrid nature of the plant, of this plant about the year 1848, and in 

 Indeed, Mr. A. Irvine, in his Illustrated ten years after the canes bad reached a 

 Handbook of British Plants, records that height of from sixteen to twenty feet, 

 many hours' boiling did not suffice to dissi- I being about afoot in circumference at the 

 pate the acrid matter. base. The joints on the stems are nearly 



A. iiaZicztr/! has been found togrowinthe ' of equal growths, and owing to their re- 



