3. CÁLLA, L. Water Arum.
Spathe open and spreading, ovate (abruptly pointed, the upper surface white), persistent. Spadix oblong, entirely covered with flowers; the lower perfect and 6-androus; the upper often of stamens only. Floral envelopes none. Filaments slender; anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled, with 5–9 erect anatropous ovules; stigma almost sessile. Berries (red) distinct, few-seeded. Seeds with a conspicuous rhaphe and an embryo nearly the length of the hard albumen.—A low perennial herb, growing in cold bogs, with a long creeping rootstock, bearing heart-shaped long-petioled leaves, and solitary scapes. (An ancient name, of unknown meaning.)
1. C. palústris, L.—Cold bogs, N. Scotia to N. J., west to Mich. and Minn., and northward. June.—Seeds surrounded with jelly. (Eu.)
4. SYMPLOCÁRPUS, Salisb. Skunk Cabbage.
Spathe hooded-shell-form, pointed, very thick and fleshy, decaying in fruit. Spadix globular, short-stalked, entirely and densely covered with perfect flowers, their 1-celled or abortively 2-celled ovaries immersed in the fleshy receptacle. Sepals 4, hooded. Stamens 4, opposite the sepals, with at length rather slender filaments; anthers extrorse, 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Style 4-angled and awl-shaped; stigma small. Ovule solitary, suspended, anatropous. Fruit a globular or oval mass, composed of the enlarged and spongy spadix, enclosing the spherical seeds just beneath the surface, which is roughened with the persistent fleshy sepals and pyramidal styles. Seeds filled by the large globular and fleshy corm-like embryo, which bears one or several plumules at the end next the base of the ovary; albumen none.—Perennial herb, with a strong odor like that of the skunk, and also somewhat alliaceous; a very thick rootstock, bearing a multitude of long and coarse fibrous roots, and a cluster of very large and broad entire veiny leaves, preceded in earliest spring by the nearly sessile spathes, which barely rise out of the ground. (Name from συμπλοκή, connection, and καρπός, fruit, in allusion to the coalescence of the ovaries into a compound fruit.)
1. S. fœ̀tidus, Salisb. Leaves ovate, cordate, becoming 1–2° long, short-petioled; spathe spotted and striped with purple and yellowish-green, ovate, incurved; fruit (in autumn) 2–3´ in diam., in decay shedding the bulblet-like seeds, which are 4–6´´ long.—Bogs and moist grounds, N. Scotia to N. C., west to Minn. and Iowa.
5. ORÓNTIUM, L., Golden-club.
Spathe incomplete and distant, merely a leaf-sheath investing the lower part of the slender scape, and bearing a small and imperfect bract-like blade. Flowers crowded all over the narrow spadix, perfect; the lower with 6 concave sepals and 6 stamens; the upper ones with 4. Filaments flattened; anthers 2-celled, opening obliquely lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled, with an anatropous ovule; stigma sessile, entire. Fruit a green utricle. Seed without albumen. Embryo thick and fleshy, "with a large concealed cavity at the summit, the plumule curved in a groove on the outside." (Torr.)—An aquatic perennial, with a deep rootstock, long-petioled and entire oblong and nerved floating leaves, and the spadix terminating the elongated scape; its rather club-shaped emersed apex as thick as the spadix. (Origin of the name obscure.)
1. O. aquáticum, L.—Ponds, Mass. to Fla. May.
6. ÁCORUS, L. Sweet Flag. Calamus.