M. oleracea was received at the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
from Mr. W. Souter, Superintendent of the Gardens of the 
Brisbane <Acclimatization Society. It flowered in the 
Mexican wing of the Temperate House in August, 1900, 
but did not ripen fruit. 
Deser.—Sitem four to seven feet high, rising from a 
large underground turnip-shaped corm, green and violet, 
glaucous. Leaves one to two feet long, rather shortly 
stoutly petioled, oblong, acuminate, base rounded, dark 
green above, pale and glaucous beneath; lateral nerves 
very distant, about three-quarters of an inch apart, 
arching. Spike decurved, shortly peduncled; rhachis 
stout, dark green. Bracts few-flowered, lower remote, 
six inches long, linear or ligulate, dull purple, and very 
glaucous, externally bright pale red within, somewhat 
tessellately mottled with darker red, tips obtuse, green. 
Calyx about an inch long; segments strongly nerved, dull 
yellow, suffused with pale, dirty purple or brown. Corolla 
about one-third shorter than the calyx, quadrate, abruptly 
cuspidate, or with the cusp sometimes produced into 
ligule, pale dull purple.—J. D. HH. 
Fig. 1, hud; 2, flower; 3, corolla; 4 and 5, stamens; 6, top of style and 
stigma :—all enlaryed. 
