POPULAR FLORA. 
205 
I. Spadiceous Division. 
90. PALM FAMILY. Order PALMiE. 
Although some, like the Dwarf Palmettos of the Southern States, make only rootstocks 
not rising out of the ground, most Palms form trees, with a simple, unbranched, cylindrical 
trunk, growing by the terminal bud only, and always surmounted by a crown of large and 
peculiar, long-petioled leaves. These are fan-shaped in the Palmetto (Fig. 79), pinnate 
in the Date-Palm, &c. The flowers burst forth from a spathe; are small, but generally 
perfect, and furnished with a perianth of 6 parts, in two sets, the outer answering 
to a calyx, the inner to a corolla. Fruit a nut; that of the Cocoanut is a good illustra¬ 
tion. The principal Palms of our southern sea-coast belong to the genus ( Chamcerops ) 
Palmetto. 
91. ARUM FAMILY. Order ARACEiE. 
Herbs with sharp-tasted or acrid juice, and more or less fleshy in their texture; 
the leaves either simple or compound, and commonly so much netted-veined that the 
plants might readily be mistaken for Exogens. The small flowers are closely spiked or 
packed on a fleshy axis, forming a spadix. The fruit is a berry, or sometimes dry and 
leathery, but containing some pulp or jelly. The following are the principal genera we 
meet with. 
Spathe present, forming a hood, wrapper, or a petal-like leaf. 
Flowers naked, i. e. without any perianth, monoecious, dioecious, or polygamous, 
Covering only the base of the long spadix, which is enclosed in the hooded 
spathe (Fig. 147). Stem simple, from a rounded corm: leaves com¬ 
pound, of 3 or more leaflets, ( Ariscema) Indian-Turnip. 
Covering the whole length of the spadix. Leaves Simple, arrow-shaped (Fig. 
503) or heart-shaped: spadix on the end of a scape, bearing stamens 
only at the upper part. 
Spathe green, thick, and closely folded around the spadix: anthers sessile. 
Herb growing in shallow water, ( Peltandra) Arrow-Arum. 
Spathe white and petal-like, open, ( Calla) Calla. 
Flowers with a 4-leaved perianth or calyx, perfect, on a globular spadix, surrounded 
by a thick, shell-shaped, purplish spadix coming out of ground in 
earliest spring, some time before the great ovate and heart-shaped, veiny 
leaves; odor that of the skunk. Stamens 4, ( Symphcdrpus) Skunk-Cabbage. 
Spathe none at all; the spadix naked, covered with flowers, which are perfect, with a 
perianth of 6 or sometimes 4 pieces, and as many stamens. 
Spadix on the summit of a scape rising out of the water: leaves oblong, on a long 
petiole, ( Orontium) Golden-Club. 
Spadix from the side of a leaf, or from a stem similar to one of the long and erect, 
linear, 2-edged or sword-shaped leaves: all springing from a sharp- 
aromatic and creeping rootstock, (Acorns) Sweet-Flag. 
