WILD CALLA 



Calla palustris Linnaeus 



Calla is an ancient name taken from Pliny. Our wild plant, the only 

 species of the genus, belongs to the same family as the showy green- 

 house plant, to which the name calla is applied commonly. Growing 

 in bogs, and along the borders of sluggish streams, the bright green 

 leaves of the wild calla mingle with those of other bog plants, and not 

 until the plant comes into bloom, and the white spathe appears, are we 

 attracted to it. Large numbers of small flies and midges visit the flowers. 



Wild calla is a member of the Arum Family, a vast group, most 

 of whose representatives are inhabitants of tropical forests. It should 

 be noted that in the case of our plant, as in other members of the family, 

 what appears to be a blossom is really a spike of many small and incon- 

 spicuous flowers, surrounded by a showy corolla-like envelope or spathe. 



Wild calla ranges from New Jersey to Iowa and Wisconsin, and 

 northward to Nova Scotia, Hudson Bay, and Alaska. It occurs also in 

 Europe and Asia. 



The specimen sketched was obtained west of Sudbury on the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway in Canada. 



PLATE IXC) 



