| ARUM. 
a 
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verous animals, and constitute decidedly good 
food for farm stock; and they even form a deli- 
cate esculent for man, when they are served, in 
a boiled condition, in white sauce. A tuber which 
was analyzed by M. Boussingault weighed, when 
fresh from the ground, 1 oz. and 15°6 dwts., and, 
after being dried in the stove 0°7 dwt. One part 
or integer of this tuber was reduced, after absolute 
desiccation, to 0°208; one part of the dry tuber 
was reduced, by incineration, to 0:0594; and its 
constitutional elements were ascertained to be 
43:02 per cent. of carbon, 5°91 of hydrogen, 43°56 
of oxygen, 1:57 of azote, and 5°94 of ashes or 
earthy and saline ingredients. One part or integer 
of dried stem—which consisted almost wholly of 
pith, and had stood through the winter where it 
grew—was reduced by desiccation to 0°871; one 
part of this left of ashes 0:0276 ; and its constitu- 
tional elements were ascertained to be 45°66 per 
| cent. of carbon, 5:43 of hydrogen, 45°72 of oxygen, 
0:43 of azote, and 2°76 of ashes. The tuber of 
the Jerusalem artichoke is not very much more 
| watery than the potatoe, and it is exceedingly 
less so than the turnip. The proportion of dry 
matter in the Jerusalem artichoke tuber is 0°208, 
in the potatoe 0°241, and in the turnip 0.075; and 
the proportion of water in the Jerusalem arti- 
choke tuber is 0°792, in the potatoe 0°759, and in 
the turnip 0°925.—Boussingault’s Rural Economy. 
—Low’s Elements of Practical Agriculture—Mil- 
ler’s Gardener's Dictionary. — Mawe’s Gardener’s 
Calendar.— British Husbandry.—Loudon. 
ARTIFICIAL GRASSES. See Grasszs. 
ARUM. An extensive genus of perennial her- 
baceous plants, of the order Aroidez. Most are 
stemless, and of very singular appearance; and 
the roots of all are fleshy, hot, and acrid, yet, in 
many instances, are eatable. The common species, 
-Arum maculatum, is a native of Great Britain ; 
about thirty species have been introduced from 
North America, China, Japan, Ceylon, the East 
Indies, the south of Europe, the Levant, and the 
West Indies; and about fifteen other species are 
known to botanists. Seven of the introduced 
species are hardy; and all the others are more or 
less tender. About one-third are ornamental 
plants; and most of the others are cultivated, in 
their native country, for food and medicine. Four 
are evergreen under-shrubs, of from 3 to 5 feet 
in height; two are evergreen parasites, of 6 feet 
in height ; seven are evergreen herbaceous plants, 
of from 1 foot to 3 feet in height; six are tuber- 
ous-rooted plants, of from 6 inches to 2 feet in 
height; and the others are deciduous herbaceous 
plants, of from 1 foot to 3 feet in height. 
Arum maculatwm is popularly called wake- 
robin, and grows wild in woods and on shady 
banks in most parts of Great Britain. Its ordi- 
nary height is about a foot ; its leaves are stalked, 
erect, and broadly arrow-shaped ; its flowers are 
white, and appear from May till July; and its 
root is a whitish tuber, about the size of a large 
nutmeg, and is used for both food and medicine. 
ARUNDO. 
The leaves of one variety of the species are plain ; 
and those of another variety are full of black 
spots. The fresh roots, immediately on being 
tasted, seem insipid and merely mucilaginous; 
but they soon produce a pungent, prickly, pain- 
ful sensation, which a man is glad to alleviate by 
means of oil, butter, or milk. If the roots be 
taken up when the leaves have decayed, they will 
retain all or very nearly all their acridity for a 
twelvemonth; but if gathered in spring, when 
the leaves are in full vigour, they rapidly dry, 
shrink, lose all their acridity, and become fari- 
naceous, and fit for boiling or baking. In the Isle 
of Portland, where the plant is very common, 
they are not only eaten by the poor inhabitants, 
but manufactured into a kind of British arrow- 
root, which has some resemblance in property to 
potatoe starch, and is sent to London for sale 
under the name of Portland sago. The French 
manufacture from the dried roots a cosmetic, 
which they call cypress powder. The roots, though 
assigned a place in the Materia Medica, are rarely 
used in regular medical practice; yet they figure 
largely as a cure for rheumatism, among the pea- 
santry of the south of England. A popular pro- 
vincial name of the plant is lords and ladies. 
The cocoa-root species, A rwm esculentum, is ex- 
tensively cultivated in Jamaica, for the sake of 
its edible roots. It is cultivated in very nearly 
the same manner as the potatoe; and its root 
somewhat resembles the Indian yam, but lasts 
for several years. ‘Two principal varieties are in 
cultivation, called the Bourbon cocoas and the 
country cocoas.—The common dragon species, 
Arum dracunculus, a native of the south of Eu- 
rope, and introduced to Britain in 1548, might be 
grown in England for the same purposes as our | 
indigenous species. Yet the plants of it have 
some singular -properties, and a very remarkable 
appearance ; the stems of their leaves are spotted | 
with brown and purple, like the belly of a snake; | 
and their flowers have an extremely offensive 
smell, resembling that of putrid flesh.— The 
Egyptian species, Arum colocasia, is cultivated in 
Kgypt and the Levant as an esculent ; and though 
not a very delicate kind of food, is esteemed to 
be wholesome. Its leaves resemble those of the 
water-lily ; and its roots are large, thick, oblong, 
and tuberous.—Loudon’s Encyc. of Plants and 
Agr.—The Gardener's Magazine.— Withering’s Bo- 
tany.— Miller's Dictionary. 
ARUNDINARIA,—popularly Cane-Brake. A 
genus of grasses, of the bamboo tribe. The spe- 
cies macrosperma, or long-seeded, is a native of 
North America, and was first brought to Britain 
in 1809; it grows to the height of 10 feet, has 
panicled flowers, and blooms in June. The glau- 
cescent species, Arundinaria glaucescens, called by 
Willdenow Ludolfia glaucescens, and by Lamarck 
Panicum glaucescens, is a curious hothouse plant, 
recently introduced from India. 
ARUNDO,—popularly Reed. A genus of grasses, 
of the bromeze tribe. It was formerly of very 
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