The Aeroid House 
HIS house contains a large and valuable collection of tropical 
foliage plants, belonging chiefly to the Araceae, or Aeroid family. 
The Aeroid family is a large one, chiefly tropical, represented in 
our local flora by the Jack-in-the-pulpit, green dragon, arrow arum, 
wild calla, skunk cabbage, golden club, and sweet flag. Probably the 
most widely known member of the family is the so-called ‘‘calla lily” 
of commerce. The true flowers of the family, which are sometimes 
very fragrant, are usually inconspicuous and are crowded together on a 
spadix that is surrounded by a spathe. Often the spathe is so large 
and brilliantly colored that the layman mistakes it for the true flower. 
There are a few specimens in this collection that bear spathes at least 
ten inches in length, and the colors range from white and cream through 
all shades of pink, salmon, scarlet, and maroon. The fruit of many 
species is as brilliantly colored as that of our Jack-in-the-pulpit, and 
is even showier, because larger. 
The corm, or so-called root, of our Jack-in-the-pulpit, or Indian 
turnip, is intensely acrid, as anyone who has ever taken a bite of one 
knows to his sorrow. The same thing is true of many of the tropical 
species. Often, however, heating drives off the poisonous principle 
and renders the root fit for food. This is true of many species of 
caladium, alocasia, colocassia, and xanthosoma; and these plants are 
an important food source in some tropical regions. 
Some species here represented are terrestrial in habit; but by far 
the greater number are epiphytic. In their native homes they live 
chiefly in the crotches of trees, feeding on the dirt and decomposing 
vegetation accumulated there. Here most of them are grown on 
stakes that have been wrapped with sphagnum moss that has been 
Saturated with plant food. 
The plantation in this room is a comparatively new one, having 
been arranged but a year ago. The plantation is, for the most part, 
a permanent one, designed to enable these plants to develop their 
individual characteristics as in their native homes. Few of the speci- 
mens shown here have yet attained their full size. Many of them, 
however, are already large enough to be priceless. There are a great 
number of specimens in this collection that are worth over a thousand 
dollars each—some of them could not be duplicated at any price. 
Many of the species represented are exceedingly rare—the collector 
from whom the royal elephant’s ear was secured was on the look-out 
for twenty-five years before he was able to procure a single bulb of it. 
Many species are distinctly fancier’s plants, requiring the most pains- 
taking study of their habits and the most careful attention to their 
equirements if they are to be developed into exhibition specimens. 
The specimens shown here represent more than 300 species. All 
of them are of interest to the specialist and the fancier; but few of them 
have any interest for the layman outside of their wonderful foliage, 
their spathes, and their fruit. Practically all that is worth noting 
