name of Pipa de Tagua, for one real a pound at Ocafia ; a spoon- 
ful of it, with a little sugar and water, makes the celebrated 
Chicha de Tagua, said to be the most delicious beverage of New 
Granada.” ‘This statement is difficult to reconcile with the in- 
ternal organization of the fruit, and requires some emendations. 
Purdie wrote the letter in which it is contained in July, 1845, 
after he first saw the Ivory-plant, when he could not know, from 
personal experience, what took place in October following. He 
must have gathered it, therefore, from information obtained from 
the native inhabitants, who, not being versed in botanical termi- 
nology, might easily have made a mistake. The “yellow, sweet, 
oily pulp” can, in my opinion, be nothing save the second state 
into which the albumen enters, previous to its becoming solid ; 
and I am the more inclined to think that this opinion is correct, 
as it is borne out to a certain extent by analogy, For in the 
Isthmus of Panama, and other localities of New Granada, the 
name of Pipa is applied to a beverage prepared from the young 
albumen of cocoa-nuts, and in a similar way as that described 
by Purdie. The same author proceeds :—“ It has, however, a 
slightly drastic property. Although this substance contains much 
oil, it never becomes rancid by keeping, but at the end of nine 
months it preserves, in a crude state, all its flavour and quality.” 
Introduced in our gardens by Purdie, the Ivory-plant has al- 
ready produced flowers in two places,—a male specimen in 1852 
at Schénbrunn ; a female in 1855, at Kew; and it is from the 
latter that figs. 3-9 of Tab. 4914 are made. B. Seemann. 
Tab. 4913. Male and female plant, much reduced ; the female, flower portion, 
from the living plant at Kew; the rest from drawings made by Mr. Mark. 
Tab. 4914. Fig. 1. Portion of a male spadix and spathe from a dried native 
specimen, nat. size. 2. Stamen, magnified. 3. Section of a female spadix, . 
nat. size. 4, Single flower. 5. Pistil, the ovary surrounded by numerous sterile 
stamens. 6. Ovary, with most of the sterile stamens removed. 7 and 8. Vertical 
and transverse section of an ovary. 9. Ovule, more or less magnified. There 
are besides a seed entire and a section of a seed, nat. size. 
