Part 175 (1/2)

Var. fluitans, Engelm. Floating in deep water, with long slender stems and flat narrow leaves; inflorescence usually short, sparingly branched; style stout with a short oval stigma; fruiting heads 4--6” broad; nutlets dark, as large as in the type. (S. androcladum, var. fluctuans, _Morong._; not S. fluitans, _Fries._)--Ponds, Penn., W. Conn., White Mts., N. Minn., and northward.

3. S. minimum, Fries. _Usually floating, with very slender stems and thin flat narrow leaves_; fertile heads 1 or 2, axillary, sessile or peduncled (4--5” wide); stigma oval, about as long as the short style, scarcely surpa.s.sing the oval or obovate denticulate scales; _fruit oblong-obovate_ (1--2” long), pointed, somewhat triangular, the stipe very short or none.--N. Eng. to Penn., N. Ind., Minn., north and westward.--Stems 3--6' high when growing out of water, much longer when submerged. (Eu.)

ORDER 123. ARaCEae. (ARUM FAMILY.)

_Plants with acrid or pungent juice, simple or compound often veiny leaves, and flowers crowded on a spadix, which is usually surrounded by a spathe._--Floral envelopes none, or of 4--6 sepals. Fruit usually a berry. Seeds with fleshy alb.u.men, or none, but filled with the large fleshy embryo. A large family, chiefly tropical. Herbage abounding in slender rhaphides.--The genuine Araceae have no floral envelopes, and are almost all moncious or dicious; but the genera of the second section, with more highly developed flowers, are not to be separated.

[*] Spathe surrounding or subtending the spadix; flowers naked, i.e.

without perianth.

1. Arisaema. Flowers moncious or dicious, covering only the base of the spadix.

2. Peltandra. Flowers moncious, covering the spadix; anthers above, ovaries below.

3. Calla. Flowers perfect (at least the lower ones), covering the whole of the short spadix. Spathe open and spreading.

[*][*] Spathe surrounding the spadix in n. 4, none or imperfect in the rest; flowers with a calyx or perianth and perfect, covering the whole spadix.

4. Symplocarpus. Spadix globular, in a fleshy sh.e.l.l-shaped spathe.

Stemless.

5. Orontium. Spadix narrow, naked, terminating the terete scape.

6. Acorus. Spadix cylindrical, borne on the side of a leaf-like scape.

1. ARISae'MA, Martius. INDIAN TURNIP. DRAGON ARUM.

Spathe convolute below and mostly arched above. Flowers moncious or by abortion dicious, covering only the base of the spadix, which is elongated and naked above. Floral envelopes none. Sterile flowers above the fertile, each of a cl.u.s.ter of almost sessile 2--4-celled anthers, opening by pores or c.h.i.n.ks at the top. Fertile flowers consisting each of a 1-celled ovary, tipped with a depressed stigma, and containing 5 or 6 orthotropous ovules erect from the base of the cell; in fruit a 1--few-seeded scarlet berry. Embryo in the axis of alb.u.men.--Low perennial herbs, with a tuberous rootstock or corm, sending up a simple scape sheathed with the petioles of the simple or compound veiny leaves.

(Name from ????, a kind of _arum_, and a?a, _blood_, from the spotted leaves of some species.)

1. A. triphllum, Torr. (INDIAN TURNIP.) _Leaves mostly 2, divided into 3 elliptical-ovate pointed leaflets; spadix mostly dicious, club-shaped_, obtuse, much shorter than the spathe, which is flattened and incurved-hooded at the ovate-lanceolate, pointed summit.--Rich woods, N. Scotia to Fla., west to Minn. and E. Kan. May.--Corm turnip-shaped, wrinkled, farinaceous, with an intensely acrid juice; spathe with the petioles and sheaths green, or often variegated with dark purple and whitish stripes or spots.

2. A. Dracontium, Schott. (GREEN DRAGON. DRAGON-ROOT.) _Leaf usually solitary, pedately divided_ into 7--11 oblong-lanceolate pointed leaflets; _spadix often androgynous, tapering to a long and slender point_ beyond the oblong and convolute pointed greenish spathe.--Low grounds, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Tex. June.--Corms cl.u.s.tered; petiole 1--2 long, much longer than the peduncle.

2. PELTaNDRA, Raf. ARROW ARUM.

Spathe elongated, convolute throughout or with a dilated blade above.

Flowers moncious, thickly covering the long and tapering spadix throughout (or only its apex naked). Floral envelopes none. Anthers sessile, naked, covering all the upper part of the spadix, each of 5 or 6 cells imbedded in the margin of a thick and s.h.i.+eld-shaped connective, opening by a terminal pore. Ovaries at the base of the spadix, each surrounded by 4--5 staminodia connate into a cup, 1-celled, bearing 1--few amphitropous or nearly orthotropous ovules at the base; stigma almost sessile. Fruit a leathery or fleshy berry, 1--3-seeded. Seed obovate, surrounded by a tenacious jelly, the base empty, the upper part filled with a large and fleshy spherical embryo; no alb.u.men.--Stemless herbs, with arrow-shaped leaves and simple scapes from a thick-fibrous or subtuberous root. Fruit in a globose cl.u.s.ter, enclosed by the persistent fleshy base of the spathe. (Name from p??t?, _a target_, and ????, for _stamen_, from the shape of the latter.)

1. P. undulata, Raf. Root of thick tufted fibres; scape 1--1 high, about equalling the leaves; basal lobes of the leaves rather long and often acutish; spathe convolute throughout, wavy on the margin, mostly green, 4--7' long; sterile portion of the spadix several times longer than the pistillate; ovules several; fruit green; seeds 1--3. (P.

Virginica, _Kunth_, and most authors.)--Shallow water, New Eng. to Fla., west to Mich. and Ind. June.

2. P. alba, Raf. Rootstock tuberous, covered with thick-fleshy roots and propagating by offshoots; lobes of the leaves mostly short and broad, obtuse; spathe 3--4' long, the blade broader, ac.u.minate, somewhat expanded, white; sterile part of the spadix scarcely longer than the pistillate; ovules and seeds solitary; berry scarlet, 5--6” long. (P.

Virginica, _Schott._ Xanthosoma sagittifolia, _Chapm._, not _Schott._ Caladium glauc.u.m, _Ell._ Arum Virginic.u.m, _L._, in part?)--Marshes, S.