NAT. ORD., Araceae.
COMMON NAME, Skunk Cabbage.
PREPARATION.--The fresh root gathered in spring is macerated in twice
its weight of alcohol.
(Contributed by Dr. S. A. Jones to the _Homoeopathic
Recorder_, 1889.)
This perennial, odorous member of the natural order _Araceae_ is one of
our most common meadow and bog plants. From its very realistic,
skunk-like odor when cut or bruised, and its resemblance in shape of
leaf and mode of growth to the cabbage, it has been commonly well known
as the skunk cabbage.
Belonging to the same family as the Calla lily and Indian turnip, the
shape of its flower becomes at once familiar to anyone who observes it.
Among the first plants to flower in spring is this species, and by
closely observing the surface of any boggy meadow in the latter part of
March or early April one will find irrupting the earth like mushroom the
points of many beautiful spathes gaping open to extend invitations to
the earliest slugs and carrion beetles of the season. These are the
flowers of Pothos appearing some time before the leaves, and when
divested of the mud that clings to them, and polished with a damp cloth,
as the apple-woman serves her pippins, they shine out in beautiful
mottled purple, orange, and deep red, and, being very fleshy, will keep
up appearances many days if cut deep and placed in hyacinth jars.
The root is large, thick, and cylindrical, giving off its lower end
numerous long, cylindrical branches; the leaves which appear on the
fertilization of the ovary are large, smooth, entire, and deeply plaited
into rounded folds. On opening the pointed spathe or floral envelope, a
club-like mass will be noted arising from its base. This is the spadix
bearing the naked flowers, which are perfect, consisting of a
four-angled style and four awl-shaped stamens. The fruit, when mature,
is a globular, ill-smelling, glutinous mass, consisting of the enlarged,
fleshy spadix and changed perianths, and enclosing several large
bullet-like seeds.
The roots are easily gathered, one alone being sufficient to make a
year's stock of tincture for the most lavish practitioner.