LORDS-AND-LADIES — continued. 
The flowers are monoecious and are entirely destitute of a perianth, being each 
reduced to a single stamen or to a one-chambered ovary. On the fleshy peduncle, 
within the basal chamber of the spathe, the carpellate flowers are the lowest, a 
spirally-arranged, closely-packed series of yellowish ovaries, surmounted by sessile 
stigmas. A little above these are a few barren structures, apparently ovaries with 
styles but without stigmas. Above these again is a close-set band of purplish sessile 
anthers opening at the apex of their pollen-chambers. Lastly, just in the narrow 
throat of the constriction, where the spadix narrows before expanding into the club- 
shaped appendix, is a band of other hair-like aborted structures, probably staminodes. 
“In this case,” wrote the late Lord Avebury, “nothing would at first sight seem easier or more natural than that the 
pollen from the anthers should fall on, and fertilise, the pistils. This, however, is not what occurs. The stigmas mature 
before the anthers, and by the time the pollen is shed, have become incapable of fertilisation. It is impossible, therefore, that the 
plant should fertilise itself. . . . Small flies, attracted by the showy central spadix, the peculiar smell, the prospect of honey, 
and perhaps of shelter, enter the tube while the stigmas are mature, and find themselves imprisoned by the fringe of hairs, which, 
while permitting their entrance, prevents them from returning. After a while, however, the period of maturity of the stigmas 
is over, and each secretes a drop of honey, thus repaying the insects for their captivity. The anthers then ripen and shed their 
pollen, which falls on and adheres to the insects. Then the hairs gradually shrivel up and set the insects free, which carry the 
pollen with them, so that those which visit another plant can hardly fail to deposit some of it on the stigmas." 
This explanation has, however, been much criticiseci by the late Father John 
Gerard, who points out that the “ hairs ” or staminodes are not stiff or sharp, do not 
always point downwards, do not extend as far as the walls of the chamber, are some 
distance apart, and do not, as a matter of fact, prevent the egress of all the insects. 
He suggests that the Arum is not so protogynous that self-pollination is impossible, 
and that the little flies, of which as many as four thousand have been counted in one 
spathe, are drugged by the plant to a state of imbecility and are ultimately digested, 
only wings and other indigestible parts of them remaining. It is suggested that it is 
the nectar secreted by the stigmas which produces this fatal anaesthesia. 
The upper part of the spathe withers, the starch of the appendix goes to nourish 
the swelling fruits and seeds, and in summer the ovaries, which have then become 
glossy green berries half an inch each in diameter, burst through the basal chamber 
and gradually turn to a brilliant scarlet. These fruits are slightly succulent and each 
contains two or three seeds, the surfaces of which are covered with a network of ridges. 
As if Father Gerard’s story was not sufficiently gruesome, Mr. Grant Allen actually 
suggested that these berries, which are certainly poisonous to human beings, also 
proved fatal to birds, thus ensuring manure for the sprouting seed ; but for this 
hypothesis there is no evidence whatever. 
In his “Names of Herbes” (1548) — the earliest record of Lords-and-ladies 
as a British plant — William Turner writes : — 
“ Arum is called in greke aron, in englishe Cuckopintell, Wake Robin, or Rampe, in duche Pfaffen bynde, in frenche 
Vidchaen, the Poticarie calleth it Pes vituli, Serpentaria minor, Luph minus groweth in euery hedge almost in Englande aboute 
townes in the spryng of the yere.” 
