SHOWY ORCHIS.
_Orchis spectabilis._
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
GRAY.
DEEP hidden in the damp recesses of the leafy woods, many a rare and
precious flower of the Orchis family blooms, flourishes, and decays,
unseen by human eye, unsought by human hand, until some curious,
flower-loving botanist plunges amid the rank, tangled vegetation, and
brings beauties to the light.
One of these beautiful Orchids, the _Orchis spectabilis_ or Showy
Orchis, is here presented in our group.
This pretty plant is not, indeed, of very rare occurrence; its locality
is rich maple and beechen woods all through Canada. The colour of the
flower is white, shaded, and spotted with pink or purplish lilac; the
corolla is what is termed ringent or throated, the upper petals and
sepals arching over the hollow lower-lipped petal. The scape is smooth
and fleshy, terminating in a loosely-flowered and many-bracted spike;
the bracts are dark-green, sharp-pointed, and leafy; the root a bundle
of round white fibres; the leaves, two in number, are large, blunt,
oblong, shining, smooth, and oily, from three to five inches long, one
larger than the other. The flowering time of the species is May and
June.
Our forest glades and boggy swamps hide many a rare and precious flower
known but to few; among some of the most beautiful of this interesting
group of plants, we might direct attention to the elegant and rare
_Calypso borealis_, _Pogonia triphoria_, and _Pogonia pendula_. The
beautiful Grass Pink, _Calopogon pulchellus_, with many others of the
Orchidaceæ tribe, may be regarded as flower gems to be prized alike for
their exquisite forms and colouring as for their scarcity.
These lovely Orchids, transplanted to the greenhouse or conservatory,
would be regarded as objects of great interest, but are rarely seen and
little valued by the careless passer-by, if he chances upon them in
their forest haunts.
* * * * *
INDIAN TURNIP.
(_Arum family_.)
_Arum triphyllum_
“Or peers the Arum from its spotted veil.”
BRYANT.
THERE are two species of Arums common to Canada, the larger of which is
known as Green-dragon (_Arum Dracontium_); the other, which forms the
central figure in the plate, is the most common to our soil, and is
known by the familiar name of INDIAN TURNIP (_Arum triphyllum_ or _A.
purpureum_).
These moisture-loving plants are chiefly to be found in rich black,
swampy mould, beneath the shade of trees and rank herbage, near creeks
and damp places, in or about the forest.
The sheath that envelops and protects the spadix, or central portion of
the plant, is an incurved membraneous hood of a pale green colour,
beautifully striped with dark purple or brownish-purple.
The flowers are inconspicuous, hidden by the sheath; they are of two
kinds, the sterile and fertile, the former placed above, the latter
consisting of four or more stamens and 2 4-celled anthers, the fertile
or fruit-bearing flowers of a one-celled ovary. The fruit, when ripe, is
bright scarlet, clustered round the lower part of the round fleshy
scape. As the berries ripen, the hood or sheath withers and shrivels
away to admit the ripening rays of heat and light to the fruit.
The root of the Indian Turnip consists of a round, wrinkled, fleshy
corm, somewhat larger than that of the garden crocus; from this rises
the simple scape or stem of the plant, which is sheathed with the base
of the leaves. These are on long naked stalks, divided into three ovate
pointed leaflets, waved at the edges.
The juices of the Indian Turnip are hot, acrid, and of a poisonous
quality, but can be rendered useful and harmless by the action of heat;
the roots roasted in the fire are no longer poisonous. The Indian
herbalists use the Indian Turnip in medicine as a remedy in violent
colic, long experience having taught them in what manner to employ this
dangerous root.
The Arum belongs to a natural order, most plants of which contain an
acrid poison, yet under proper care can be made valuable articles of
food. Among these we may mention the roots of _Colocosia mucronatum_,
_violaceum_, and others, which, under the more familiar names of EDDOES
and YAMS, are in common use in tropical countries.
The juice of _Arum triphyllum_, our Indian Turnip, has been used, boiled
in milk, as a remedy for consumption.
Portland sago is prepared from the larger species, _Arum maculatum_,
Spotted Arum. The corm, or root, yields a fine, white, starchy powder,
similar to Arrow-root, and is prepared much in the same way as potato
starch. The pulp, after being ground or pounded, is thrown into clean
water and stirred; the water, after settling, is poured off, and the
white sediment is again submitted to the same process until it becomes
quite pure, and is then dried. A pound of this starch may be made from a
peck of the roots. The roots should be dried in sand before using. Thus
purified and divested of its poisonous qualities, the powder so procured
becomes a pleasant and valuable article of food, and is sold under the
name of Portland Sago, or Portland Arrow-root.
When deprived of the poisonous acrid juices that pervade them, all our
known species may be rendered valuable both as food and medicine; but
they should not be employed without care and experience. The writer
remembers, not many years ago, several children being poisoned by the
leaves of _Arum triphyllum_ being gathered and eaten as greens, in one
of the early-settled back townships of Western Canada. The same
deplorable accident happened by ignorant persons gathering the leaves of
the Mandrake or May Apple (_Podophyllum pellatum_).
There seems in the vegetable world, as well as in the moral, two
opposite principles, the good and the evil. The gracious God has given
to man the power, by the cultivation of his intellect, to elicit the
good and useful, separating it from the vile and injurious, thus turning
that into a blessing which would otherwise be a curse.
“The Arum family possess many valuable medicinal qualities,” says Dr.
Charles Lee, in his valuable work on the medicinal plants of North
America, “but would nevertheless become dangerous poisons in the hands
of ignorant persons.”
The useful Cassava, (_Zanipha Manipor_), of the West Indies and tropical
America, is another remarkable instance of art overcoming nature, and
obtaining a positive good from that which in its natural state is evil.
The Cassava, from the flour of which the bread made by the natives is
manufactured, being the starchy parts of a poisonous plant of the
Euphorbia family, the milky juice of which is highly acrid and
poisonous. The pleasant and useful article sold in the shops under the
name of tapioca is also made from the Cassava root.
* * * * *