The imm nmuim: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 132. MAY 20th, 1882. Yol. 3. 



THE CUCKOO-PINT 



(Arum maculatum) , 

 By J. P. SouTTER, Bishop Auckland. 

 [Concluded from page 219.) 



AFTER fertilization, the enveloping 

 leaf and the column above the 

 pistil decays and drops off, the foliage 

 leaves also wither, and by the end of 

 summer the naked fruit stalk stands 

 gaunt and solitary, crowned with a 

 cluster of coral berries, which remain 

 conspicuous throughout autumn until 

 destroyed by frost — except they have 

 been previously devoured by birds, to 

 whom they seem attractive and innox- 

 ious, but to man they are very poison- 

 ous. Children allured by their brilli- 

 ant colour have sometimes succumbed 

 to the effects of eating them. The 

 leaves and fresh corms are also very 

 acrid and pungent, biting and smarting 

 for a considerable time the tongue that 

 has incautiously tasted them. And 

 yet, this irritating principle can be 

 entirely removed by drying, grinding, 

 and repeated washings in cold water. 

 The resulting starchy residuum being 

 very bland and palatable, it was at one 

 time rather extensively manufactured 



and sold as British sago. The ordinary 

 arrowroot of commerce is a similar 

 instance of a change produced by 

 judicious manipulation. The fresh 

 juice of the Manihot is a most virulent 

 and deadly poison ; it is, however, very 

 volatile, and is entirely disapated by 

 heat, so by repeated washings and dry- 

 ings the most delicate and digestible 

 of foods can be obtained from the most 

 unpromising raw material. In the 

 days of good Queen Bess, when the 

 ladies' ruffs and frills were fearfully 

 and wonderfully got up, the Arum was 

 highly valued as producing an excellent 

 clear starch, but cheaper, if not better, 

 ingredients have long since ousted it 

 from our boundaries. A nother singular 

 phenomenon in tlie Arum is the re- 

 markable developement of heat during 

 the period of flowering. This is best 

 observed just when the spathe has 

 begun to unfold, when the difference 

 in temperature from the surrounding 

 air is quite appreciable to the hand. 

 Kepeated and careful experiments have 

 shown that the evolution of heat con- 

 tinues with varying intensity for sev- 

 eral hours or even days, attaining a 



