420 THE REEDMACE FAMILY. [Sparganium. 



It is a larger plant, and has the long styles or points of the fruit of S. 

 simplex. 



3. S. minimum, Fries, (fig. 943). Small S. — An aquatic plant ; the 

 weak stems ascending to the surface of the water on which the long, 

 narrow leaves float. Flower-heads very few, with long, linear bracts ; 

 the 2 or 3 lowest ones female, and often shortly stalked. Fruiting heads 

 smaller than in the last two species, and the styles or points to the 

 fruits very much shorter. 



In lakes and pools, in northern Europe, Asia and America ; and in 

 the high mountains of southern Europe and central Asia. In Britain, 

 more frequent in Scotland than in England ; unknown in Ireland. Fl. 

 summer. [S. minimum is usually regarded as a slender variety of S. 

 natans, Linn., with the lower leaf sheaths not inflated, few male flower- 

 heads, and obovoid fruits ; the true S. natans {S. affine, Schn. ) has 

 inflated sheaths, several male flower- heads, and spindle-shaped drupes. 

 Both are British.] 



LXXVI. AROIDE^B. THE AHUM FAMILY. 



Herbs, with the rootstock often tuberous but not bulbous ; 

 the veins of the leaves sometimes branched or even netted, 

 almost as in Dicotyledons. Flowers closely packed in a dense 

 spike, called a spadix, with a leaf-like or coloured bract at the 

 base, called a spatha. The stamens and ovaries in different 

 parts of the spike or mixed together, without any perianth, or 

 separated by small scales, which sometimes form a small, regular 

 perianth. Ovary with 1 or several cells, each with 1 or more 

 ovules. Fruit a berry. Seeds rarely without albumen. 



A considerable family, chiefly from the tropical and warmer parts 

 of the globe, where many acquire a considerable size, or climb up the 

 stems of trees. The large spatha and broad leaves are at once char- 

 acteristic of the majority of species ; a few, however, come near to 

 Typhacece in habit, but are distinguished usually by their succulent 

 fruit, and in most cases by the seeds, or at least the ovules, not solitary. 



Leaves broad. Spatha large ......... 1. Arum. 



Leaves and spatha long and linear. Plant reed-like . . . .2. ACORUS. 



I. ARUM. ARUM. 



Spatha large, convolute (the edges rolled over each other) at the base. 

 No perianth. Pistils of female flowers at the base of the spike. Stamens 

 or male flowers above them ; the club-shaped summit of the axis without 

 flowers. Berry with 1 or very few seeds. 



A genus sometimes limited to a very few species, from Europe and 

 temperate Asia. 



1. A. maculatum, Linn. (fig. 944). Common A., Cuckoo-pint, Wake 

 Robin, Lords-and-Ladies. — Rootstock an acrid, white tuber. Leaves on 

 long, radical footstalks, ovate-hastate ; the lobes of the base straight 

 or shortly diverging, of a dark, shining green, sometimes spotted with 

 purple or marked with pale- whitish veins. Spatha 6 to 8 inches long, 



