Kew unendurable during its flowering in 1881. I should 

 be wanting in gratitude if I did not here express my deep 

 obligation to the talented artist of this work (Miss Smith), 

 who, in her efforts to do justice by her pencil to these 

 plants, suffered in each case a prolonged martyrdom that 

 terminated in illness in the case of the orchid. 



"The plant of Amorplwphallus Titanum, which flowered 

 at Kew in June, 1889, was received by Sir Joseph Hooker 

 from Dr. 0. Beccari, through the Marchese Corsi Salviati, 

 of Sesto, near Florence, exactly ten years . previously 

 (June, 1879). It was then a small seedling, which had 

 been raised in the Botanical Gardens at Florence from 

 seeds forwarded by Dr. Beccari soon after he discovered 

 the plant in Sumatra in 1877. 



" The plant at Kew was grown in a stove along with 

 other tropical tuberous aroids until it became too large for 

 the house, when it was removed to the house where the 

 Victoria regia is grown. Here it was placed on an in- 

 verted pot in the tank, the water in wdiich in summer was 

 heated to about 80° Fahr. Although deciduous, like the 

 other Amorphophalli, yet A. Titanum sometimes retained 

 its leaf fully twelve months, or even more. On the leaf 

 decaying the tuber was taken out of the soil, washed, and 

 buried in clean moist silver sand, and kept in a temperature 

 of about 70°. It was repotted in rich loamy soil as soon 

 as it began to push into fresh growth. 



" In the spring of 1887 the tuber w r as three feet nine 

 inches in circumference and ten inches deep. The new 

 leaf pushed through the soil in the first week in June, and 

 grew so rapidly that in about six weeks it was mature. 

 The dimensions of the plant at that time were as follows : — 

 Along with them are the dimensions of wild examples as 

 measured by Dr. Beccari " (to which I have added the 

 measurements by Forbes. — j. d. h.) : — 





Circumference 

 of tuber. 



Height of 



petiole. 



C i rcnmf erence 



of petiole at 



base. 



Circumference 



of petiole at 



apes. 



Circumfer- 

 ence of loaf- 

 blade. 



Kew plant, 1887 . 

 Native plants (Bec- 

 cari) . 

 Forbes . 



ft. in. 

 3 9 



5 



6 6 



ft. in. 

 6 6 



10 

 17 



ft. in. 



1 10 



3 



2 7 



ft. in. 

 1 1 



ft. 

 26 



45 



