190 
WILD FLOWERS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 
and the Coco-nut Palm (Cocos nucifera) grows in almost all tropical countries near the 
coast. 
I. Cuckoo-pint (Arum). Spathe broad and petal-like ; leaves broad, heart-, arrow-, or halbert- 
shaped. 
II. *Sweet Sedge (Ac'orus). Spathe narrow and leaf-like; leaves narrow and sword- 
shaped. 
I. CUCKOO-PINT (ARUM. Linn.) — Flowers imperfect, clustered round the lower half of a 
club-shaped coloured spadix, the female at the base, usually with a ring of sterile female flowers 
above, then the male, and finally another cluster of sterile female flowers at the top which are rather 
bristly and pointed slightly downwards ; the flowerless club-shaped spadix is exposed in the large 
leaf-like spathe which is contracted and folded over where the flowers begin and so conceals them. 
The reason for this contraction is very interesting and has to do with the fertilisation of the flowers. 
Insects are attracted by the unpleasant odour of the flowers ; they crawl down and feed on the juice 
secreted in the thick lower part of the fleshy spathe, but, on attempting to creep out, they are 
met with the upper cluster of bristly sterile flowers, which, with the contracted spathe, form a 
trap and prevent their egress. There is, however, plenty of food, and they wander about till 
the anthers are ripe and they get well dusted with the pollen ; then the uppermost flowers 
become limp, the spathe expands, and the insects are free to take the pollen to other 
flowers. 
The male flowers consist of 1 stamen, the filament being so short that the 2-celled anther 
appears stalkless (sessile) on the spadix ; they are free or united in pairs ; the female flowers 
consist of 1 carpel with a i-celled seedcase, a short style or none, and a stigma. The fruit is a 
i-celled fleshy berry with 1 or more seeds. Herbs with large halbert-shaped (hastate) leaves, with 
netted veins, on long stalks which are all from the short fleshy root and are sheathed at the 
base. 
(1) Common Cuckoo-pint. (Arum maculdtum.) — Spadix brownish-purple. 
(2) Italian Cuckoo-pint. (Arum ital'icum.) — Spadix yellow. 
1. Cuckoo-pint, Wild Arum, Lords and Ladies, Wake Robin. (Arum 
maeul&tum. Linn.) — As just described. The spathe, which is 6-9 inches long, is of a delicate 
translucent yellow-green and surrounds a dull brownish-purple or yellowish club-shaped spadix ; the 
female flowers are yellowish and the male purple ; the berries are of a brilliant scarlet and are 
poisonous ; the spathe is on a stalk some 6 inches high ; the leaves are large, heart-arrow-shaped 
(cordate-sagittate), and often spotted with dark purple ; and the root is an oblong tuber. 
\PIate 62. 
Common. On hedge-banks and in woods ; throughout England, rare in Scotland, common in 
Ireland. April — May. Perennial. 
2. Italian Arum. (Arum ital'icum. Mill.) — A very similar species, but larger in all 
ways; the spathe is 8-15 inches long, of a greenish-white, fragile, and quickly falling over the 
spadix, which is always yellow ; the berries are larger ; and the leaves appear in the winter instead 
of in the spring as in Arum maculatum. 
Local, rare. In shady places ; in the Isle of Wight, Cornwall, Devon, and Dorsetshire, and in the 
Channel Isles. June. Perennial. 
