terises by the spathe not being convolute below, and by the 
ovules having Jong funicles, and would have included it 
under that of Hydrosminee (an African group), with the 
spathe convolute and tubular below, and the ovules attached 
by a broad base. My impression is, however, that these sub- 
tribes are not distinguishable as such. I have only further 
to advert to the remarkable uniformity of leaf-structure in 
these gigantic Aroids, that of Proteinophallus being not only 
characteristic of the tribe Pythoniew, but occurring amongst 
the Dracontiece in Godwinia, a genus as far removed as 
_ possible from the Amorphophalli. 
Descr. Root three to twelve inches in diameter, often weigh- 
ing several pounds. Petiole eighteen inches high, as thick as the 
finger, cylindric, mottled with brown; blade of leaf dark green, 
two feet in diameter; 3-partite, the three principal divisions 
shortly stalked, deltoid, deeply pinnatifid ; segments spread- 
ing, oblong, again pinnatifid ; ultimate lobes ovate, acuminate, 
convex, with a single costa and spreading lateral veins. 
Flowering-stem produced before the leaf, nearly three feet 
high and upwards of one inch in diameter, cylindric, strict, 
very dark brownish-green, clothed at the very base with loose 
erect spathes that are pale and mottled with greenish-brown. 
Spathe with a conyolute tube six inches long and three in 
diameter, limb nearly horizontal, orbicular, acuminate, four 
feet in circumference, about 15-nerved, the nerves deeply 
sunk and united by transverse venules; convolute portion 
contracted at the top, pale green with very dark green 
spots and purple edges; limb of spathe dark vinous 
purple, with a green lustre; margins recurved, involute, 
and as it were auricled at their meeting above the tube. 
Spadiz almost twice as long as the spathe; female portion 
two inches long and one and a quarter in diameter, cylindric, 
densely clothed with greenish-purple ovaries; male portion 
contiguous, three inches long, densely clothed with vertically 
elongate anthers; appendix fifteen inches long; cylindric, 
gradually tapering from the lobulate base to the acute tip, 
irregularly marked with longitudinal depressions of the same 
colour as the spathe. Anthers sessile, 2-celled, with two pores 
vertically placed. Ovary globose, 2-3-celled ; style short but 
distinct, stigma capitate 2-3-lobed; ovules one in each cell, 
anatropous, attached to the placenta towards its base by a 
broad face.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Root and leaf; 2, flowerin 1 size ; 3 
: ; g stem, both one quarter the natural size ; % 
inflorescence one half the natural size; 4, female nies ot spadix of the natural 
size; 5, stamens : ‘ ig : . 
aati fol. ens ; 6, grey ; 7, vertiee ; 8 and 9, transverse sections of ditto, 
