from two to four or five inches long, slightly concave in the disc, 
the apex and margins reflexed, cuneate in shape, more or less 
broad and always obtuse or retuse at the apex, and more or less 
tapering at the base ; both sides are soft to the touch and velvety, 
of a delicate pale _pea-green colour, with a kind of mealy down 
beneath ; both sides are marked with simple or branched parallel 
or slightly divergent lines, below more prominent, and almost 
Jamellate, which unite below so as to form a thickened base. 
‘Their colour is generally the same as the leaf, sometimes darker, 
and in some specimens, from Mexico and from Demerara, these 
lines are of a brownish or blackish hue. From the base or axils 
of the young leaves in the centre the spathas appear, nearly 
sessile, hairy, oblong-ovate, pale yellow-green, the lower half 
having the sides convolute into a sheath, the upper half or /imé 
is spreading, ovate, acute, striated; the whole length scarcely 
three-quarters of an inch. At the base of the limb within, is a 
a cup-shaped scale, green, and lobed, giving rise to a short 
column or spadix, a on a level with the summit, in a 
circle, five, oblong, four-celled anthers, attached by their back 
and sessile, opening by four, small, oblong Zines or pores in the 
front. Beneath this cup-shaped scale is another nearly orbicular 
and bifid one, and below that, occupying the whole length of the 
inside of the folded portion of the spatha, is situated the single 
ovary, oblong, membranous, striated, downy, one-celled, bearing 
numerous oblong ovules all along the inner axis: its upper part 
terminates in a tapering incurved s¢y/e, with a capitate or almost 
cup-shaped stigma, downy at the top, and nearly reaching to the 
anthers. Many of the ovules prove abortive. ‘The seeds, as 
described in the generic character, are well figured by Mirbel, 
in the Annales du Mus. d’ Hist. Nat. p.16.¢#.17. W.JS.H. 
Curr. In the West Indies this singular plant covers the surface 
of stagnant waters in the same manner as the several species 
of Lemna do in temperate countries. In this country it must be 
grown under glass, in a cistern or tank of water at a tempera- 
ture ranging in summer between 70° and 80°. The depth of the 
water, whether several feet or only a few inches, is unimportant : 
when it grows in deep water its roots do not reach the bottom. 
As it increases rapidly by producing stolons, or runners, in the 
form of rays, each of which bears a young plant, which becomes 
a new centre for producing stolons, it will, if allowed, soon 
occupy in one summer more space than can often be afforded for 
growing tropical aquatics. It will also grow freely in a small 
shallow tub or pan; and, although its natural habit is to float, yet 
it appears to thrive more luxuriantly in water only a few inches 
deep, so that the roots reach the soil: and it may be stimulated to 
grow to a size much larger than usual, by placing a thin layer 
