THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



135 



subject for so slight a sketch, I wiU only mention it in passing- 

 and write of our native calla (Calla palustris) which is perhaps 

 quite as beautiful though much more modest in habit and size. 

 This charming plant is found in cold bogs, often clinging to a 

 half-submerged log where it holds its flowerlike spathe a little 

 above the smooth heartshaped leaves while the fleshy roots are 

 hidden in the slime and ooze. The beautiful spathe is white 

 and of the same rich texture as the greenhouse calla, but, unlike 

 that, is flat and open while the real flowers are greenish yellow, 

 very tiny, and closely packed about the oblong spadix. The 

 plant cannot be called rare, but, owing to its un-hygienic liking 

 for wet feet, is naturally absent over wide stretches of territory. 



Both of these plats are members of the Arum family — a 

 very large family, but one whose members are chiefly tropical. 

 Of other northern members, one is the skunk's cabbage (our 

 very earliest wildflower, but one that most of us willingly miss) 

 and Jack-in-the pulpit w4io contrives, better than some other 

 clergymen, to combine the modesty of the commoner with the 

 I'legance of the aristocrat. 



