is a peculiar difficulty in assigning to it its proper place. 

 Linn^us himself placed it in the class Gynandria, order 

 Polyandria ; but a more careful examination of the parts of 

 fructification soon led Botanists to the conclusion, that none 

 of the aroidece were really gynandrous. Haenke, in his edi- 

 tion of the Genera Plantarum, removed it to Polyandria 

 Polygynia ; Schreber inserted it under Moncecia Mon- 

 andria ; and lastly, in Willdenow's Species Plantarum, it 

 occurs in Heptandria Monogynia ; where certainly no one, 

 from an examination of the species now under consideration, 

 would think of looking for it. The stamens are inserted, as 

 appears to us, without order or definite number in the inter- 

 stices between the germens, and being surrounded by neither 

 calyx nor corolla, may be considered as solitary. 



The older Botanists considered our plant as a species of 

 Dracunculus. M. Petit, Physician to the Royal Hospitals 

 at Paris, made a new genus of it in the beginning of the 

 last century, under the name of Prouvenzalia, in honour of 

 his friend, M. Prouvenza, Inspector-General of the Royal 

 Hospitals, which Linnaeus, however, did not think fit to 

 adopt, but applied that of Calla, a name borrowed from 

 Pliny. 



It is a native of Germany and all the northern parts of 

 Europe, but has not been found in Great- Britain, though 

 Parkinson distinguishes it by the name of " Our Water- 

 " Dragons." 



Was cultivated by Philip Miller, in 1738. Requires 

 to be kept in a water-trough. Propagated by its creeping 

 roots. Flowers in July and August. Communicated by 

 Mr. William Kent, from his very fine collection of rare 

 plants, which he cultivates, with the happiest success, at 

 Clapton. 



