FETID ADDER'S-TONGUE.
Scoliopus Bigelovii, Torr. Lily Family.
Leaves.—Two; oval-elliptical to narrowly oblanceolate; four to fifteen inches long; blotched with brown. Flowers.—Three to twelve; on lax pedicels three to nine inches long. Sepals.—Whitish, veined with purple; spreading. Petals.—Erect; narrowly linear; wine-color without. Stamens.—Three. Ovary.—One-celled; three-angled. Stigma three-lobed. Hab.—The Coast Ranges from Marin to Humboldt County.
When the first white blossoms of the toothwort are making their appearance in moist woodlands, we may be sure that the fetid adder's-tongue is already pushing its shining green leaves aboveground away up in the cold cañons of north hill-slopes; and unless we hasten, we shall be too late to see its curious flowers. I have often arrived only in time to find its fruit, which resembles a beechnut in shape. When the flowers first open they stand erect, held in the shining chalice formed by the two sheathing green leaves. Later the leaves open out, showing their beautiful blotched surfaces, and the three-angled flower-stems become limp and twisted. The petals stand erect, and are so slender as to resemble three linear stigmas. The little oval anthers are green before opening, but soon become golden with the discharging pollen.
These flowers are elegant in appearance, and suggestive of orchids; but unfortunately they have a very offensive odor, like that of the star-fishes found upon our beaches, which makes us quite content to leave them ungathered. But the large yellow slug has no such aversion to them, and we have often seen him banqueting upon them. Indeed, he is so fond of them that the flowers are often entirely gone from the stems.
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