Localities. — 1» woods, bushy places, borders of fields, and hedge banks ; 
common. 
Perennial. — Flowers in May. 
Root tuberous, whitish. Stem none. Leaves all radical, from 
2 to 4 in number, petiolate, broadly arrow-shaped, more or less 
halbert-shaped, pointed, upright, smooth, of a bright glossy green, 
generally more or less spotted with black ; their petioles or stalks 
dilated at the base, and sheathing the flower-stalk. Spatha large, 
from 6 to 8 inches high, or more in shady places, usually pale 
green, but varying in colour, and sometimes spotted like the leaves, 
very concave, the margins convolute, the summit pointed. Spadix 
(fig. 1, 6?.) long, varying in colour from a pale buff to a fine purple 
or deep carmine ; naked, and club-shaped at top ; at its base are 
the germens (6), the sessile anthers (a), and the nectaries (c). Berries 
on a blunt spike, bright scarlet, viscid, remaining long after the 
leaves and spatha have past away. Seeds 2 or more in each berry. 
The Root and Leaves of the Arum, when fresh, are so extremely pungent, 
that it is highly disagreeable to taste them, but they lose this acrimony in dry- 
ing, and the roots become farinaceous and insipid. After the acrimony of the 
roots has been extracted, either by boiling or baking, they afford a very mild and 
wholesome farinaceous nutriment, resembling Salep. Many nations prepare 
the only bread they have from plants as acrimonious as this; first dissipating 
the noxious qualities by heat. 
The Root dried and powdered is used by the French as a lotion, and is sold 
at a high price, under the name of Cypress Powder. Starch has been also pre- 
pared from the root; but Gebakde observes, that the hands are apt to be 
blistered in using it. Mr. Lovdon, in his valuable Encyclop. of Gardening, 
informs us, that in the Isle of Portland the common people dig up the roots, 
•which they macerate and steep, and the powder so obtained is dried, and sent 
to London, and sold under the name of Portland Sago. 
The Flower has been cited as affording a remarkable instance of the sponta- 
neous heat generated in vegetables ; which, according to the observations of 
Lamarck and Senebier, is evolved in a very obvious degree for several hours, 
subsequent to the first opening of the spatha. 
jEcidittm Ari, Hook. Br. FI. v. ii. pt. ii. p.369, is sometimes found, parasi- 
tical, on the under side of the leaves of this plant, in the neighbourhood of 
Oxford. I have observed it in Bagley Wood; and Mr. George Gulliver, 
Surgeon, found it, some years ago, near Banbury. 
Mrs. F. Arabella Rowden thus cautions Children against the Berties of 
the Arum: — 
" Oh ! wander not where Dragon Arum showers 
Her baleful dews, and twines her purple flowers, 
Lest round thy neck she throw her snaring arms, 
Sap thy life’s blood, and riot on thy charms, 
Her shining berry, as the ruby bright, 
Might please thy taste, and tempt thy eager sight ; 
Trust not this specious veil ; beneath its guise, 
In honied streams a fatal poison lies. 
So Vice allures with Virtue’s pleasing song, 
And charms her victims with a Siren’s tongue.” 
