Tas. 6048, 
GODWIN IA GiGas. 
Native of Nicaragua. 
Nat. Ord. ARoIDem.—Tribe DRACONTIER. 
Genus Gopwinta, Seemann ; (Journ. Bot., vol. vii. p. 278 and 315). 
Gopwinta Gigas; Seem. lc. t. 96 et 97. Gard. Chron, 1872, p. 1720, 
et 1873, p. 73. 
Nothing smaller than the elephant folio size can do justice 
to an illustration of the wonderful plant of which a reduced 
figure and analysis is here given from the specimen which 
flowered in Mr. Bull’s nursery in December last, and which 
was repeatedly exhibited ‘at Horticultural Shows in 
London, where, as well as in Mr. Bull’s stove, its curious 
structure attracted the attention of botanists, and its stature, 
almost grotesque form, habit and colour, that of horticul-— 
turists and amateurs. 
The genus to which Godwinia belongs is, as correctly 
indicated in the Journal of Botany, the essentially tropical 
American tribe of Dracontiee, amd has nothing to do with 
the gigantic Indian Amorphophailli, which it represents in the 
New World, and which it resembles so much in stature and 
habit ; nor with the even more stately Conophallus of Sierra 
Leone. It is a native of the Chontales mountains of 
Nicaragua, where it was discovered by Dr. Seemann in 
1869, growing amongst brushwood near rivulets. 
In its native state the tuberous root of Godwinia attains a 
circumference of two feet two inches, and a weight of 90-92 oz. 
The petiole reaches ten feet in height, and has a metallic lustre 
and mottled surface resembling a snake standing erect, and 
bears a blade three fact eight inches long. The peduncle 
is shorter than the petiole, about five feet and a half, and the 
spathe alone is two feet long. The plant grows with great 
rapidity, and emits a peculiar odour. Dr. Seemann named 
this prodigy after Mr. George Godwin, F.R.S., the eminent 
AuGUST Ist, 1873. 
