p- 804), and of C. Wallisii (1877, p. 108), I do not find 
that he anywhere expressed an opinion as to the validity of 
the genus; he simply rightly refers these plants to André’s 
genus Curmeria, and is no more responsible for the sound- 
ness of the latter, as distinct from H. omalonema, than I am 
for Engler’s view of both these being sections of one genus. 
H. Wallisii was discovered by the collector whose name 
it bears in the Andes of Columbia, when travelling for Mr. 
Bull, to whom the Royal Gardens are indebted for the 
specimen of the plant from which our figure is taken, and 
which flowered at Kew in October, 1878. Mr. Brown 
informs me that there are two forms of the species, that 
here figured and one with narrower leaves that have very 
indistinct cartilaginous margins. _ : 
Descr. Rootstock subterranean, stout, aromatic ; stem 0. 
Leaves numerous, spreading, thickly coriaceous, four to six 
inches long, oblong or oblong-ovate, shortly acuminate, 
quite glabrous, base rounded or narrowed, dark green above 
with very pale blotches, glaucous beneath; petiole very 
short, grooved in front, sheathing part one to two inches 
long, membranous, red. Peduwnele one to one and a half 
inch long, stout, and as well as the leaf-sheaths and spathes 
of a dirty red-purple colour speckled with white. Spathe 
three inches long, tube or convolute portion obliquely 
turgid, one and a half inch long by one in diameter; limb 
rather shorter and narrower, erect, acuminate, boat-shaped. 
Spadiz almost as long as the spathe, rather slender, cylin- 
dric, obtuse ; female portion a half to three-quarters of an 
inch long, densely clothed with minute densely-packed 
flowers, male portion three times ag long, narrower, pale 
yellow. Stamens three, very short, cells globose, connective 
trigonous tumid. Ovary obovoid, compressed, two- to three- 
celled, stigma sessile discoid ; ovules numerous, inserted on — 
placentas projecting from the Septum, anatropous or semi- 
anatropous.—J. D. H. 
4 Fig. 1, Spadix ; 2, stamens seen from above ; 3, a single stamen seen in front ; 
» Ovary ; 5, transverse section of ditto; 6, ovules :—alJ enlarged. 
