any in the vegetable kingdom. During the revision of the 
Order for the ‘‘ Genera Plantarum,” I have been through- 
out impressed with Schott’s great excellence as a systematist, 
his powers of observation, and discernment of affinities. 
Arisarum proboscideum is a very rare plant; the only 
localities assigned to it by Engler are shaded woods of the 
Upper Arno, and the Apennines, along which range 1b 
extends from the far-famed Valle Ombrosa, near Florence, 
to the latitudes of Rome and Naples. : 
The specimen here figured came from the rich collection 
of the late lamented G. C. Joad, Esq., of Wimbledon, which 
he bequeathed to the Royal Gardens, where it flowered in 
a cool greenhouse in February last. 
Drser. Rootstock subterranean, horizontal, creeping, as 
thick as a goose-quill. Leaves solitary or few, each with a 
short obtuse basal sheath; petiole four to six inches high, 
stout, cylindric; blade three to four inches long by one to 
two inches broad, hastate, middle lobe ovate or oblong, 
obtuse or apiculate, margins recurved, lateral lobes as long 
as the middle one or shorter, obtuse, rather recurved. 
Scape not half the length of the petiole, stout, with a single 
basal sheath. Spathe erect, one to one and a quarter inch 
long without the proboscis, which is often five inches long ; 
tube broadly cylindric, rather inflated below, where it is 
truncate with the scape intruded, pale grey-white ; upper 
part olive-green, horizontal and decurved, narrowed into 
the proboscis, the filiform apex of which is first decurved, 
and then ascending becomes very slender and erect ; mouth 
of spathe small, deep olive-purple. Spadie included, 
cylindric, ending in a stout subclavate obtuse club, which 
is curved within the curved part of the spathe, and the base 
of which is intruded. Filaments very short; anthers 
broadly reniform, one-celled, dehiscence transvers>. Ovaries 
very few, at the base of the spadix in front, subglobose, 
one-celled, with many erect, slender, clavate, orthotropous 
ovules ; style very short, stigma capitate.—J. D. H. , 
Fig. 1, Spadix and flowers ; 2, vertical section of appendix ; 3 and 4, anthers ; 
0, Ovaries; 6, vertical section of an ovary; 7, ovules :—all enlarged. 
