as 
APRIL Ist, 1885. 
Tas. 6808, 
DRACONTIUM FECUNDUM. 
Native of British Guiana. 
Nat. Ord. AnorpEx.—Tribe OronTIEZ. 
Genus Dracontium, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 995.) 
Dracontium (Eudracontium) fecundum; tuber tuberculis perplurimis confertis 
epigzis fusiformibus cinctum, folii hysteranthii lamina tripartita, segmentis 
interruptim pinnatis v. pinnatifidis, pinnis polymorphis aliis minutis obtusis aliis 
majoribus lanceolatis ovato-lanceolatisve sessilibus v. basi decurrentibus inzqui- 
lateris undulatis lobatisve v. immo pinnatifidis, petiolo griseo albo-marmorato, 
pedunculo scaberulo griseo-purpureo, spatha 5-pollicari lineari-oblonga costata 
brunnea intus saturate purpurea, vertice incurvo acuminato, spadice spatha 
ter breviore cylindracea obtusa, perianthii foliolis 6 spathulatis, staminibus 6, 
stylo elongato stigmate simplici. 
This noble Aroid is evidently a congener of Dracontiuwm 
(Godwinia) Gigas (Tab. 6048) and of D. Carderi (Tab. 
6523), from both of which it differs in floral characters and 
in the profusion of bulbils produced on the tuber. These 
completely surround the parent organ, and rising from 
its whole circumference form a broad dense girdle of brown 
egg-like bodies with dark acute tips. 
D. fecundum was discovered by W. HE. E. Thurn, Esq. 
(now Stipendiary Magistrate at Pomeroon in British 
Guiana, and formerly Curator of the Museum at George 
Town) during an expedition to the Corentyn River in 
1880, and who sent tubers to Kew, where they flowered 
in March, 1882, and produced leaves in the following 
January. The leaf of this species, like its congeners, 
has a grand appearance, the petiole attaining six feet in 
height, with an umbrella-like blade quite four feet in 
diameter. 
Descr. Tubers surrounded by a profusion of spindle- 
shaped acute bulbils which rise above the ground and form 
a dense girdle round the base of the peduncle and petiole. 
Leaf solitary, produced after the flower; peduncle six feet 
high, sparsely minutely tubercled, terete above, below 
