—it is the effect of high cultivation; and what is gained in 
size is lost in brilliancy of colour, to judge from the figure. It — 
has flowered with us in the autumn, and probably by a little 
management the blossoms may be produced at most seasons of 
the year. 
Descr. There is no true stem to this plant. The red, terete — 
petioles, furrowed on the anterior side, spring in clusters from a — 
subterraneous creeping rhizome, by dividing which the plant is — 
readily increased. Bracteas ovate, hair-pointed, strongly ciliated 
at the lower edge. Leaf about as long as the petiole, in our plants 
averaging eight to ten inches long, five or six broad, obliquely and — 
inequilaterally ovate, deeply cordate at the base, the lobes over- 
lapping, sparingly villous (as is the petiole), the margin sinuato- 
dentate, the surface bullate as if from the tightness of the veins. 
The colour a deep-green, with a metallic lustre, and towards the — 
Margin tinged with purple. The dark green-coloured surface is — 
however interrupted by a broad ring, if it may be so called, of — 
a dead silvery-white, which takes the direction of the margin of | 
the leaf, and is continued almost to the apex of the leaf. Pe- 
duncle resembling the petiole, but quite terete. Cyme rather 
few-flowered, twice dichotomous. Flowers large, pale rose-colour. 
Bracts very deciduous. Yale lowers two inches across, of four — 
sepals ; two cordato-ovate, concave ; two smaller, oblong, plane. — 
Anthers yellow, acuminate. Female Jlowers scarcely more than — 
half the size of the male, of five nearly equal, oblong, spreading — 
sepals. Style short. Stigmas yellow, convolute. Capsule ob- 
lique, oval, with two narrow, short, parallel wings, and one long, 
projecting, ovato-oblong, obtuse one. 
Fig. 1. Capsule. 2. ‘Transverse section of the cells :—magnified. 
