266 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 191 i 



Pellandra aquatica is an attractive plant for summer 

 eflects on the margins of ponds 



ward and the effect is happy, boyish, even 

 humorous. People admire callas; they 

 exclaim at anthuriums; they love Jacks. 



I admit that Jack's colors are not 

 showy — only brown and purple — but 

 isn't that part of his charm? His colors 

 blend so cunningly with the shadows of 

 the woods that you have to seek him like a 

 boy playing "hide and seek." Moreover 

 his leaves are picturesque without being 

 dragonesque, and his bunch of scarlet 

 fruits is one of the prettiest sights in the 

 woods during midsummer. 



If we had to pay $12.50 per 100 for 

 tubers of Jack-in-the-pulpit as the Euro- 

 peans do we should appreciate this flower 

 more. In a famous wild garden near 

 Philadelphia, thousands of tubers have 

 been planted and Jack-in-the-pulpit now 

 flourishes there in such abundance as is 

 never seen in the wild. Gather and see 

 it in mass and you will swear that it has 



Jack-in-the-pulDit is the only aroid with a hooded 

 spathe and the largest of the hardy ones 



wonderful possibilities for beauty. Every- 

 one who owns a bit of wet woods should 

 try to grow it by the thousand. The 

 methods of propagation are the simplest. 

 Offer farmers' children a cent for every 

 large tuber they can get in July or August. 

 Gather the seeds in midsummer and 

 sow them broadcast in your peat gar- 

 den. 



RELATIVES OF JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 



The superior beauty of Jack-in-the- 

 pulpit emerges more clearly when you 

 come to compare Jack with his hardy 

 rivals. The others all have smaller spathes, 

 or weird leaves, or a still weirder smell. 

 And the only plant in the whole vast 

 family of the Araceae that has a hooded 

 spathe, so far as I know, is this particular 

 species, Ariscema triphyllum. 



Few people know that there is more 

 than one Arissema. Yet we have a 

 native one, A. Dracontium, which Britton 

 calls ' ' dragon root. " It is decidedly dragon 

 like on three counts: (i) It has seven to 

 eleven leaflets, whereas Jack has only three. 



(2) The spathe is not hooded, but stands 

 straight up and comes to a sharp point. 



(3) The spadix, or "Jack" part of the 

 flower, is abnormally long, sometimes pro- 

 jecting six inches like a monster's tongue. 



I have never seen the two species of 

 Arissema advertised by the Dutch nur- 

 serymen, viz. A. ringens {or prcecox) and 

 A. Amurense, but as ringens means "gap- 

 ing," the flower must be inferior. The 

 Chinese species costs twenty-five cents a 

 bulb, plus duty, plus parcels post. I am 

 going to try it this year, but that is only 

 because I like collecting and don't mind 

 buying nine worthless novelties at a high 

 price if the tenth is good. 



A FINE CHANCE FOR IMPROVEMENT 



I once lived near a wood where there 

 were thousands of Jacks, and one day my 

 whole family turned out to study them. 

 If there is any flower near you that grows 

 by the thousand you will find it a fasci- 

 nating pastime to go about hunting for 

 the largest individual blossom, the biggest 

 clump, the best colors, etc. In a single 

 hour we brought home eleven different 

 specimens of Jack-in-the-pulpit which were 

 almost as different as most horticultural 

 varieties. Take, for instance, the color 

 variations: one flower was wholly green; 

 another was wholly purple; a third had the 

 nearest approach to bright red; a fourth 

 had a purple stem of great beauty; a fifth 

 had a red stem; a sixth had the lightest 

 ground color in its flower — almost 

 white. 



Next consider the markings. One was 

 very richly coated with velvety purple 

 on the back of the spathe. Another had 

 the prettiest variation, because of its cross 

 veins of green. 



As to size and form, the most remarkable 

 were (i) the tallest plant, which grew 

 twenty-one inches high; (2) a long-spathed 

 specimen, with the spathe three inches 

 above the top of the spadix; and (3) the 



The skunk cabbage in flower. April 1st is one of the 

 most attractive sights of our spring landscapes 



broadest spathe we could find, which was 

 2^ inches wide. 



But the greatest treasure we found was 

 one with a straight spathe like a florist's 

 calla. A straight spathe displays the 

 colors while the hood conceals some of 

 the richest coloring. 



I believe that a popular garden plant 

 could be bred from Arissema, if any 

 one had the patience to combine all or 

 most of the good traits I have mentioned. 

 If two American nurserymen can get fif- 

 teen cents a tuber for Jacks, why could not 

 some amateur Burbank work up a stock 

 of some new variety worth $50 to 

 $100? 



HARDY FLOWERS LIKE THE CALLA 



I must reluctantly turn from Jack 

 because the popular standard of floral 

 beauty among the aroids is the florist's 

 calla. Of course, you know, Mr. Collector, 

 the florist's calla is a Richardia and the 

 true calla of the botanists is Calla palustris, 

 an exquisite little American bog flower 

 sometimes known as the water arum or 

 American calla. It is only six inches 

 high, blooms in May, and its pretty, white 

 spathe is about an inch wide and sometimes 

 23^ inches long. Another charming feature 

 of this diminutive beauty is its red berries 

 which form a relatively large head and 

 ripen in July or August. 



Is there no larger calla-like flower that 



Three weeks later the skunk cabbage develops a 

 mass of bright green ornamental foliage — Symptocar- 

 pus JoetMus 



