Arisema are put by the natives of the Himalaya in times of 
scarcity as articles of food. The plate here given is from 
a specimen flowered by H. N. Elwes, Esq., who introduced 
this and many other species, aided by a drawing made in 
its native country by an artist employed by the late Judge 
Cathcart, and preserved in the Kew collection of drawings. 
In this drawing the bases of the peduncle and _ petioles 
are subtended by two oblong membranous sheaths, three 
and five inches long respectively, which are white and 
obscurely mottled or banded with dull grey. It flowered 
at Preston House in May, 1879. 
Duscr. Dicecious. Tuber the size of the fist. Leaves 
two; petiole five to eight inches long, thicker than the 
thumb, green ; leaflets three, eight to ten inches long and 
broad, from trapezoid-ovate to orbicular, acuminate or 
apiculate, subsessile, dark green with deeply-sunk reticulate 
veins which are very prominent beneath, margins slightly 
undulate yellow or red. Pedunele shorter and hardly so 
stout as the petiole, green. Spathe very large, tubular 
portion four to six inches long, cylindric, expanding above 
into a convex crown, which again dilates into the lamina, 
deeply grooved, grooves dull purple, the ridges broad and 
white ; lamina of spathe six to ten inches broad, deflexed, 
spreading out into broad lateral wings which are almost 
convolute, deeply cleft in front ; whole surface of a brown- 
purple colour netted with prominent-green veins. Spadiz 
with the flowering portion very short, about one inch long, 
cylindric-conic, suddenly contracted into a short naked 
column supporting the dark brown-purple polished appen- 
dix, which expands at the base into a lobed thick circular 
disk, then contracts into a fusiform body which terminates 
in a very slender tortuous thread a foot long; this thread 
iS In a young state folded in one of the three leaflets of the 
leaf. Anthers scattered, stipitate, pale yellow. Ovaries very 
dense, subglobose, contracted into a short style with a 
truncate stigma. Ovules about six, pendulous from the top 
of the cell.—J. D. H. : 
Fig. 1, male spadix, of the natural size 3 2, anther after dehiscence, enlarged. 
