Asarum geophilum was procured by Mr. Ford, Superin- 

 tendent of the Hong-Kong Botanical Gardens, from the 

 province of Kwantung in Southern China in 1888. Living 

 plants, from which the accompanying drawing was made^ 

 were sent to Kew by that zealous explorer, and flowered 

 in a cool greenhouse in November, 1889. 



Descb. Whole plant more or less softly hairy. Root- 

 stock as thick as a swan's quill, creeping and branching, 

 red-brown, as are the petioles, leaf-nerves beneath, and 

 peduncles. Leaves alternate, distant, three to four inches 

 in diameter, orbicular-cordate, obtuse, ciliate, deep green 

 above with closely reticulate white nerves, pale green 

 beneath; petiole two to three inches long, stout. Flowers 

 axillary, solitary ; peduncle stout, about half an inch long, 

 decurved. Flowers an inch in diameter; ovary broadly 

 hemispheric, wholly inferior. Perianth-tube short, and as 

 well as the flat lobes, covered with soft setee; mouth 

 constricted, annulate; lobes three, orbicular-ovate, obtuse, 

 dark red-purple with white spots, and margined with 

 golden yellow, the anticous rather longer than the others. 

 btamens equal, filaments short ; anthers oblong, connec- 

 tive produced into an obtuse cone. Style short, deeply 

 laterally six-cleft, with short decurrent stigmas.—/ D H 



a/efjaljed™ ^ ^ ^ Pe " anth rem ° Ved ; 2 and 3 ' stameTls > 4 - st J Ie : " 



