CUCKOO-PINT FAMILY 



5°7 



" rushes " with which, before the use of carpets had been introduced 

 into England, it was customary to strew the floors of the great. As 

 it did not grow near London, but had to be fetched at considerable 

 expense from Norfolk and Suffolk, one of the charges of extra- 

 vagance brought against Cardinal Wolsey was that he caused his 

 floors to be strewed with fresh rushes too frequently. Its bitter 

 rhizome is used in herb-beers, gin, and snuff. Most species of 

 the Order give out a con- 

 siderable amount of heat 

 within the spathe at the 

 time of flowering, so that 

 the temperature rises notice- 

 ably above that of the ex- 

 ternal air. Many of them 

 also have lurid colouring 

 and a fetid odour. 



i. Arum. — Leaves hastate, 

 net- veined ; spathe con- 

 volute ; flowers monoecious ; 

 perianth absent. 



2. Acorus. — Leaves 

 sword - shaped, parallel - 

 veined; spathe leaf-like, not 

 convolute ; flowers perfect ; 

 perianth 6-leaved. 



i. Arum (Cuckoo-pint). 

 — Rhizome short, fleshy ; 

 leaves radical, hastate, net- 

 veined, glabrous, with a 

 sheathing petiole ; spathe 

 convolute, contracted above 

 the base ; spadix terminated 

 by a club-shaped, naked, 

 fleshy appendix ; flowers 

 monoecious, the carpellate ones below, separated by some aborted 

 ones from the staminate ones, above which are some more 

 aborted ones ; perianth absent ; fruit berry-like, i -chambered, few- 

 seeded. (Name, from the Greek name of the plant.) 



i. A. maculdtum (Cuckoo-pint, Lords-and-Ladies, Wake-Robin). 

 — A succulent, herbaceous plant, with large, glossy, arrow-shaped, 

 radical leaves, which are often spotted with dark purple. The pale 

 yellow-green spathe is erect and twice as long as the spadix. They 

 maybe discerned wrapped up in the~ young leafstalks even before 



Acorus calamus {Sweet Sedge). 



