Mvnocotyledons with Petaloid Flowers — Aroidece . 
114 
Fruit usually a berry. 
USES, &c.—Aroidese are generally characterised by acridity of their juices, very marked in Cuckoo-pint, 
especially in the corm, and yet more strongly in Dumb-cane (Dieffenbachia Seguine) of the West Indies, the juice 
of which occasions, violent inflammation of the membrane of the throat and mouth, and swelling of the tongue. 
This acridity is dissipated by heat or boiling, and, in the case of the corms of Cuckoo-pint, leaves behind an abundant 
farina, which was formerly collected in the Isle of Portland as British arrowroot. The large farinaceous tubers of 
Colocasia antiquorum and allied species form an important article of food in the tropics, where they are much 
cultivated. The rhizome of Sweet Flag is a well-known aromatic bitter. 
Several stemless and scandent tropical Aroids are grown in our hot-houses, as numerous varieties of Caladium, 
remarkable for the beautiful variegation of their hastate leaves ; Colocasia; Alocasia, the leaves of which sometimes 
present an almost metallic lustre; Philodendron; Anthurium; Monstera, the axis of the fruit-spike of which is 
edible; and the so-called Lily-of-the-Nile or Arum, a South African species of Richardia, with a beautiful white 
funnel-shaped spathe. 
Natural Order 
LEMNACEzE. Tab. 90. 
Diagnosis. — Herbs, reduced to minute oblong or ovate disk-like fronds 
floating upon stagnant water. Flowers from a fissure in the margin or 
upper surface of the frond; in the common British species consisting of 2 
stamens and a 1 -celled ovary sheathed by a membranous spathe. 
Distribution. —A very small Natural Order, nearly allied to Aroids, common in stagnant pools 
throughout the Temperate zones; less frequent between the Tropics. 
One British Genus ; Species, 5. 
