3. RICHAR'DIA, Kth. Egyptian Calla. Spathe involute at base, spreading, marescent; spadix covered with flowers, fertile below, stam-inate above; anthers ∞, free, sessile, 2-celled, on a broad connectile; ovaries incompletely 3-celled, intermixed with sterile filaments; berry few-seeded, seeds suspended. - Herb with a thick rhizome, tall, erect, radical leaf-stalks, and scapes with a large, white spathe.

R. .aethiopica. A fine, showy plant of the green-house and parlors. Lvs. 2 to 4f high, hastate-cordate, thick, smooth, on sheathing petioles. Scape rather taller, bearing a cylindric spadix within the large, involved, milk-white spathe. † Cape Good Hope.

4. CAL'LA, L. (Probably altered from beautiful.) Spathe ovate, spreading, persistent, colored; spadix covered with flowers with no perianth; filaments slender, with 2-celled anthers, encircling each ovary; ovary 1-celled, 5 or 6-ovuled, the upper often abortive; berry red, depressed, few-seeded. - An aquatic herb with a prostrate, creeping rhizome, cordate lvs. and a broad white, open spathe.

C. palustri3 L. - An interesting plant in shallow waters, Penn. to N. Eug., Wis. and Brit. Am. Lvs. 2 to 3' long, nearly as wide, cuspidate, long-petioled, smooth and entire. Scape thick, 4 to 6' high. Spathe clasping at the base, recurved, with a twisted cusp, much longer than the oblong, cylindric spadix. Jl. - The rhizome is acrid, but Linnaeus tells us that the Laplanders extract a wholesome breadstuff from it.

5. SYMPLOCAR'PUS, Salisb. (Gr. connection, fruit.) Spathe shell-form, ventricous; spadix oval, covered with perfect flowers; perianth deeply 4-parted, segments cucullate, cuneate, truncate, persistent, becoming thick and spongy; berries globous, 1-seeded, imbedded in the spadix, and with the fleshy perianth forming a kind of sorosis; seed without albumen. - Aquatic, acaulescent herbs.

S. foetidus Nutt. Skunk Cabbage. Lvs. cordate-oval, acute; spadix subglob-ous, preceding the leaves. - A common plant, Can., N. Eng, Mid. and W. States, growing in swamps, meadows and ditches, renowned for its odor, which is scarcely less offensive than that of the animal whose name it bears. Early in spring, the swelling spathe is seen emerging first from the ground or water, more or less covered with purplish spots, its edges partly infolded, and its point incurved. It incloses the spadix, which is oval, covered with flowers of a dull purple. The leaves, which arise after the flowers, are of a bright green, numerous, becoming very large (often 20' by 12). (Pothos fœtida Mx. Ietodes, Bw.)

6. ORON'TIUM, L. Golden Club. (Name of doubtful origin.) Spathe none; spadix cylindric, covered with perfect flowers; perianth 4 to 6-sepaled; stamens 4 to 6; ovary few; stigma sessile; fruit a dry berry or utricle, seed without albumen. - Acaulescent, aquatic. Fls. yellow at the summit of the scape, which thickens upwards into the spadix.

O. aquaticum. - This interesting plant is a native of inundated banks and pools, U. S. Lvs. lanceolate, 6 to 9' by 2 to 3', smooth, of a deep green, velvet-like surface above, paler beneath, on long, radical petioles. Scape thick and terete, about a foot in length, closely invested by a short sheath at base, and ending in a spadix of a rich yellow color, covered with small, perfect, yellow lis. of an offensive odor - the upper ones often tetramerous. May.

7. ACO'RUS, L. Sweet Flag. (Gr. a, privative, and the pupil of the eye; supposed to cure maladies of the eye.) Spadix cylindric, covered with flowers, and issuing from the side of a leaf-like scape; perianth 6-sepaled; stamens 6, linear; ovary free; stigma sessile, minute; fruit dry, 3-celled, many-seeded. - Herbs with a fleshy, aromatic rhizome. Lvs. radical, ensiform, as well as the scape.

A. calamus L. Summit of the scape above the spadix very long and leaf-like. - Grows in wet soils throughout the U. States. The thick, prostrate, creeping rhizome is highly valued for its aromatic flavor, its warm and pungent taste. The long, sword-shaped leaves are readily distinguished by the ridge running their whole length. The cylindrical spadix is about 3' long and 3" diam., covered with small, green flowers. Jn., Jl