Tab. 6355. 



ISCHAKUM ANGUSTATUM. 



Native of Syria. 



Nat. Ord. Aroide/E.— Tribe Diucuxcui.ee. 

 Genus Ischarum, Blumej {Sehott, Prodi: Sy$t. Avoid, p. 65). 



Isohabum anguitatum ; foliis longe crasse petiolatis oblongo-lanceolatis subacute. 

 spatlMB tubo oblongo modice inflate in laminam angustc linean-oblongam v. 

 loritbrmem acuminatum saturate purpuream vix angustato, spadicis parte 

 foeminea brevi, organis neutris subulatis sparsis, antherarum spica polliean, 

 appendice gracillimo atro-purpureo spatha breviore, ovams confertis, stylo 

 breA'i adscendente apice recurvo. 



The various groups of Aroidew are pretty well restricted 

 in geographical distribution, and of these the subtribe of 

 Dracuncidcce, to which Ischarum belongs, is all but confined 

 to the Mediterranean region, where it increases in numbers 

 to the eastward. In Syria and Palestine the species arc very 

 common, growing in the dry open ground, where they flower 

 in the autumn rains, and leaf in the following early spring. 

 The species here figured was found by myself in Syria in 1860, 

 but I cannot tell exactly where, for the tubers were collected m 

 September without flowers, and put in a bag with many 

 other roots that I dug up as I journeyed along, and to whose 

 generic name even I had then no clue. It flowered at the 

 Royal Garden first in December, 1861, and formed its leaves 

 in the following January in a cool frame. I fail to identify 

 it with any described species, and I find nothing like it ; in 

 the Herbarium. Another species of the genus, which I had 

 also brought from Syria, is figured at t. 5324, under the 

 name of I. Pt/rami, Schott, which is, however, a doubtful 

 identification. 



Descr. Tuber the size of a small potato, a depressed 

 sphere. Sheaths embracing the base and middle of the spathe 



APEIL 1st, 1878. 



