Tas. 5255, 
CALADIUM sicotor, var. Chantini. 
Two-coloured Caladium ; Chantin’s var. 
Nat. Ord. ArorpEa#.—Monacra MonANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 5199.) 
CaLaDiuM Jicolor ; foliis peltatis ovato-sagittatis, lobis profundis paululum diva- 
ricatis bicoloribus, spatha erecta basi ovoidea v. subglobosa medio coare- 
tata apice ovato-acuminata. 
Var. Chantini ; foliis supra luride viridibus albo maculatis venis latissime rubris. 
Catapium bicolor. Vent. Pl. Nouv. ¢. 30. (Tas. Nostr. 5199, cum syn.) 
Catapium Chantini. Ch. Lem. Ill, Hort. Aug. 1858, p. 58. Flore des Serres, 
t. 1352. 
Amongst the many splendid kinds of varigated-leaved plants, 
for most of which we are indebted to the skill of the horticul- 
turist, none surpasses the present in effectiveness; for owing 
to the breadth of the white and red markings, and especially to 
the vividiness of the latter, it stands out in brilliant relief against 
the broad green foliage of the stove. When describing a more 
delicate but less conspicuous variety, var. Neumannii, at Tab. 
5199, we stated that there could be no doubt of its being a 
variety of the old and well-known C. dicolor, and we need hardly 
add that this is another state of the same protean species. Both 
are stated to’have been imported from Paré. It has been ob- 
served that these and other kindred Aroids display in their 
native forests considerable variations in the colour of the leaf; 
but these are never so marked or vivid as they become by care- 
ful cultivation, and propagation afterwards from the brightest- 
coloured individuals that appear. Even our own Arum macula- 
tum displays some tendency to vary in the colour of the leaf, 
and a specimen was the other day sent to the Royal Gardens, 
_ with two clear cream-coloured bands on the leaf; it was a soli- 
tary sickly plant however, growing in a ditch, and is probably 
not strong enough to establish a garden variety from. 
_ Fig. 1. Spadix. 2,8. Stamen. 4. Ovary. 5. Vertical and transverse sec- 
tions of ovary :—all magnified. 
JULY Ist, 1861. 
