Arum Lil

THE ARUM LIL

THIS plant is usually labelled Calla AEthiopica, and there is no impropriety in classing it as a calla; on the contrary, it is well to embrace any and every opportunity of protesting against the vicious use of commemorative names that is now becoming common with botanists who are too idle to diagnose, while over busy in "dedications". But no matter: "a rose by any other name will smell as sweet," and the arum lily is a glorious plant that should be grown wherever suitable accommodation can be provided for it. Being an arum, it is not a lily; but there is no lily, however beautiful, that can be said to surpass it in elegance of form or in the purity of its ivory-white chalice, folded in curves that seem to mock the genius of the greatest of artists.

There is not in the world a more accommodating plant than this, provided solely that it be protected from frost in winter. A hardy plant it is not, and many a one has lived through two or three mild winters on the margin of a pond or stream, only to perish and leave no trace of its existence when a sharp winter has come and put it to the proof of extreme endurance. The arum lily is a greenhouse plant, half-aquatic in habit, yet bearing to be dried up in summer, as though water were the last of its necessities. But the drying-up is not good practice, for it results in the production of small flowers; whereas, if the plant be kept moist all the summer through, it will in spring produce large flowers, and a greater number of them than is possible in the case of plants that are forgotten, as many are from the moment they have ceased to be attractive.