September is a good season for removing the young plants; and where the open garden is found too cold for the roots to stand the winter, we recommend them to be planted in pots filled with garden mould that may be taken into the house during the winter; and as soon as the frost is over, the pots may be plunged into such parts of the parterre, or the shrubbery, as require the aid of white flowers to enliven it or to contrast with those of heavier colours. These plants may also be increased from the seeds, which ripen in August ; but, as they require three years before they arrive at a state to flower, this mode of cultivation is seldom attended to. It should be observed, that this plant has a thick, fleshy, tuberous root, which rots if too freely watered. The French call this plant Calla d'Ethiopie, Pied-de-Veau, and Arum d'Ethiopie.

The common Dragon plant, Arum Dracunculus, grows naturally in Italy, and other southern parts of Europe, from whence it has long been introduced to the gardens of this country, as Gerard observes, in 1596, that he had two of these plants growing in his garden. This species of Arum, although objectionable on account of its disagreeable odour, deserves a place in large gardens, from its singularity of appearance; for in the spring it sends up a straight stalk about three feet in height,

curiously spotted like the belly of a snake, and from hence it is called the Dragon Arum. The calyx or spathe is very large when growing in a rich moist soil, and being of a fine claret colour within, and enclosing a large spadix of the same colour, it has an uncommon appearance, and should, therefore, for its odd, capricious shape not be altogether neglected, although when in flower its strong carrion-like scent is certainly disagreeable.

There is a species of Arum which grows in the morasses about Magellan's Strait, in South America, whose flowers exhibit the appearance of an ulcer, and exhale so strong an odour of putrid flesh, that the flesh-flies resort to it to deposit their eggs. Pliny says that the smell of the common Dragon Arum is so offensive as to be even dangerous to pregnant ladies. He tells us, also, that it was a common practice in his day to carry about the person a part of the root of this plant as a preventive against serpents, which he affirms will not come near any one who has taken this precaution. (Book xxiv. chap. 16.)

This singular exotic is so hardy that it will grow in any soil and situation; and it propagates itself so fast by offsets from the root, that there is no occasion to give directions for its increase by seed. It should be removed in autumn when the leaves are decayed.

The name of Arum for this family of curious plants is derived from 'Apà, Noxa, Injury, because the root when eaten without preparation affects the tongue with a pungency as if it were pricked with a needle.

CUCKOO PINT, OR WAKE ROBIN. Arum Maculatum.

This native plant frequently finds its way into the banks of our orchards and shrubberies, although it is seldom if ever cultivated. We shall, however, not let pass unnoticed what seems to have excited more regard in ancient times.

Pliny tells us that the leaves of the Arum were anciently used to preserve cheese, by covering it over with them. Wedelius is of opinion that the Chara, which Cæsar's soldiers found abundantly about Dyrrachium, was this plant. Being reduced to straits for want of provisions, they mixed the roots with milk, and made them into a sort of bread. But this probably was the Italian Arum, the roots of which are considerably larger than those of England. The roots of the latter might certainly be eaten with safety, after having their acrid nature destroyed by several waters.

Mr. White notices, in his History of Selborne, that the roots of the Arum are scratched up and eaten by the thrushes in severe snowy seasons, and the berries are devoured by several kinds of birds, particularly by pheasants.

Bears seek this plant as a necessary medicine to open their stomachs, after they have lain for several weeks without food.

This species of Arum was formerly called Starch Wort, on account of the roots being employed to stiffen ruffs and frills, particularly in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when these ornaments were worn by gentlemen as well as ladies. during the virgin reign, says,

Gerard, who wrote

"the most pure

and white starch is made of the rootes of Cuckoo Pint; but most hurtfull for the hands of the laundresse that hath the handling of it, for it choppeth, blistereth, and maketh the hands rough and rugged, and withall smarting." These roots have occasionally been used as a substitute for soap; and Mr. Ray particularly mentions their being used about Maidstone in Kent for that purpose. The roots loose their acrimony in drying, and become farinaceous and insipid. It is from these roots, dried and powdered, that the French make a wash for the skin, which is esteemed a good and innocent cosmetic, and which sells for a high price, under the name of Cypress powder. In Worcestershire they

give this plant the name of Bloody Men's Fingers, from the red berries that surround the spadix. The French have as many vulgar names for the Arum as ourselves, amongst which is Pied de Veau, from the shape of the leaf resembling the bottom of a calf's foot; Bonnet de grand Prêtre, High Priest's Mitre; Pain de Liévre, Hare's Bread, which seems to imply that it is eaten by those animals. In some parts of that country it is called Chou Poivre, Pepper Cabbage.

Sir Hans Sloane says that a species of these plants is carefully cultivated in most of the plantations in the West Indies, principally for the sake of the leaves, which are boiled, and eaten like spinach or cabbage. The roots are also eaten after being baked in hot ashes. This species is found in all the islands of the Southern Ocean, and is cultivated every where within the Tropics, and even in the northern extremity of New Zealand. The natives of the South-Sea Islands bestow great pains on the culture of this root, by inundating the land at one time, and draining it dry at others, by means of ditches dug round the fields. Thus we have attached to the

another instance of the importance

same plants in one part of the world, which in others are utterly despised, and deemed by the illiterate almost a curse to the land.

Old medical writers extol the virtues of this acrid