Through the opening of this capsule rises the central column, a long club of a livid green, surrounded at the base by two rings, one of ovaries and the other of stamens.

Such, briefly, is the flower or rather the inflorescence of the Serpent Arum.
For two days it exhales a horrible stench of putrid flesh; a dead dog could not produce such a terrible odour.

Set free by the sun and the wind, it is odious, intolerable.

Let us brave the infected atmosphere and approach; we shall witness a curious spectacle.
Warned by the stench, which travels far and wide, a host of insects are flying hither; such insects as dissect the corpses of frogs, adders, lizards, hedgehogs, moles and field-mice--creatures that the peasant finds beneath his spade and throws disembowelled on the path.

They fall upon the great leaf, whose livid purple gives it the appearance of a strip of putrid flesh; they dance with impatience, intoxicated by the corpse-like odour which to them is so delicious; they roll down its steep face and are engulfed in the capsule.