244 ME. N. E. BBOWN ON SOME NEW AEOIDEiE. 



u A very common and very variable plant, differing in luxuriance, 

 Bize, and even other more important points, as the rivulets in 

 which it grows are muddy or sandy, shallow or deep, swift or slow. 

 In swift deep water all the parts of the plant are much more 

 developed, the leaves and petioles are longer, and the pedicels 

 [peduncles] some inches long, hearing up the inflated part of the 

 tube of the spathe above the ground ; in this form the pointed 

 sterile apex of the spadix is mostly wanting, and the spadix itself 

 is firmly attached by apex to the spathe. In very shallow and 

 still water, on the contrary, the leaves are broader, and the lower 

 part of the spathe covered by the imperfectly sheathing bases of 

 the leaves is, as it were, sessile on the root below the surface of 

 the mud. In every case the long tube is adapted to the depth 

 of the water and keeps up a supply of light and air to the sub- 

 merged parts of fructification ; in very dry weather it rises out 

 of the mud, and is then only 1-2 inches long. The fly-catching 

 disposition of the valve I have found always the same after the 

 pollen is shed, and the inflated tube generally contains half a 

 dozen living insects, attracted probably by the slight carrion smell 

 of the limb of the spathe ; the valve rises with force enough some- 

 times to tear away the attachment of the summit of the spadix. 

 The native name is ' Tropong ayr,' or ' water- trumpet.' The 

 fruit I have never been able to find ; perhaps, as in many exten- 

 sively creeping plants, it is rarely produced, for I have sought it 

 very industriously." 



Crvptocoeyne Griffithii, Schott, Synop. p. 1 ; Prod. p. 14. 



This plant Engler in his monograph (DC. Monog. Phanerog. 

 ii. p. 631) has placed next C. Gomezii, Sch., in a subsection cha- 

 racterized as having an oblong-ovoid tube to the spathe ; but the 

 tube of the spathe is most distinctly cylindrical, and considerably 

 longer than the limb. Its real affinity is with C. cordata, Griff., 

 to which it is closely allied. The Kew Herbarium contains the 

 following specimens : — Malacca {Griffith), no. 6012 ex parte !& 

 6028 ex parte ! 



C. Dalzellii, Schott in Bonplandia, 1857, p. 221 ; Prod. 

 p. 15 ; Engler in DC. Monog. Phanerog. ii. p. 631. 



As very little is known of this species, I here add a MS. note 

 of Mr. Dalzell's preserved in the Kew Herbarium : — " It has one 

 sessile leaf at base. Leaf lanceolate, without petiole, and appa- 



