thickened club.

_Preferred Habitat_--Moist woodland and thickets.

_Flowering Season_--April-June.

_Distribution_--Nova Scotia westward to Minnesota, and southward to the
Gulf states.

A jolly-looking preacher is Jack, standing erect in his parti-colored
pulpit with a sounding-board over his head; but he is a gay deceiver, a
wolf in sheep's clothing, literally a "brother to dragons," an arrant
upstart, an ingrate, a murderer of innocent benefactors! "Female
botanizing classes pounce upon it as they would upon a pious young
clergyman," complains Mr. Ellwanger. A poor relation of the stately
calla lily one knows Jack to be at a glance, her lovely white robe
corresponding to his striped pulpit, her bright yellow spadix to his
sleek reverence. In the damp woodlands where his pulpit is erected
beneath leafy cathedral arches, minute flies or gnats, recently emerged
from maggots in mushrooms, toadstools, or decaying logs, form the main
part of his congregation.

Now, to drop the clerical simile, let us peep within the sheathing
spathe, or, better still, strip it off altogether. Doctor Torrey states
that the dark-striped spathes are the fertile plants, those with green
and whitish lines, sterile. Within are smooth, glossy columns, and near
the base of each we shall find the true flowers, minute affairs, some
staminate; others, on distinct plants, pistillate, the berry bearers; or
rarely both male and female florets seated on the same club, as if
Jack's elaborate plan to prevent self-fertilization were not yet