tion in the Journal of Botany contains an exhaustive 
comparison of the characters of the three then known 
species as enumerated above. 
Not long after the discovery of P. pleianthum, Dr. Hanod 
had the good fortune to receive specimens ‘of a fourth 
_ species, from the continent of China, P. versipelle, Hance 
(in Journ. Bot. vol. xxi. 362), which has clustered extra- 
axillary flowers and six stamens. Its leaves are much like 
those of P. pleianthum, but more deeply divided. 
The flowers of P. pleianthum and versipelle have a most 
offensive smell, like those of many Aroidew, which I do 
not find to have been observed in other species. ‘The 
leaves and roots of the American Mandrake are drastic 
and poisonous, but the sweet and subacid fruit is eatable, 
as I found that of-the Himalayan species to be. 
Plants of P. p’eianthum were sent to the Royal Gardens 
by Mr. Charles Ford, F.L.S., Superintendent of the Hong 
Kong Botanic Gardens, i in 1885, and it flowered in August 
of last year. It came along with the singular Homecon 
chionanthe (Plate 6871), and was cultivated in a pot in a 
cold frame till 1889, when it was planted arid flowered in 
a border of loam in a cold house.—J. D. H. 
. Fig. 1, Stamen and pistil; 2, transverse, and 3, vertical section of ovary :— 
all enlarged, 
