286 FLORA VITIENSIS. 
margine repanda, petiolo brevior, costa venisque albidis; spadix spatham lineari-cymbiformem 
æquans? appendix reliqua spadicis parte longior.—Arum macrorrhizon, Forst. Plant. Escul. p. 27 ; 
Prodr. n. 329, ex parte. Colocasia Indica, Kunth. Colocasia pruinipes, C. Koch, App. 1854, p. 4. 
Caladium giganteum, Blume, fide Hassk. Hort. Bogor., p. 56. Nomina vernac. Vitiensia, “ Via mila," 
* Via gaga,” “ Via sori,” et “ Dranu.’—On river banks and in swampy places on the outskirts of 
woods, islands of Taviuni, Viti Levu, and Vanua Levu (Seemann! n. 651). 
The Via mila, always growing in swamps, is a gigantic species, often twelve feet high; the trunk or 
corm of which—the edible part—is, when fully developed, as large as a man’s leg: a single leaf weighing 
three and a half pounds. The petiole was found to be four feet long, and ten inches in circumference at 
the base; the blade of the leaf three feet two inches long, two feet six inches broad, and thirteen feet six 
inches in circumference! The plant emits a nauseous smell, amply warning, as well as the various popular 
names it bears, against any incautious contact with it. Besides the name of Via mila, which signifies 
“acrid Via,” we have that of Via gaga, or poisonous Via. What may be the meaning of Via sori, and 
Dranu, occasionally applied to it, I have not been able to find out. In order to remove the acrid proper- 
ties, the trunk is baked, or first grated, and then treated as madrai, or bread, in the manner explained 
above; yet, notwithstanding all precautions, the natives are frequently ill from eating it. 
Mann, in his ‘Enumeration of Hawaiian Plants,’ p.205, confounds this species with Colocasia antiquorum, 
Schott, var. esculenta, when he says :—“ There is a form [of the just-named species] which grows high up 
in mountain valleys, known as ‘ Apii,’ which has very large leaves and a small and useless corm.” I saw this 
plant on some of the mountains of Oahu, and thus alluded to it in my ‘ Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. 
Herald,’ vol. ii. p. 84:—* The fleshy trunks of the ‘ Ape,’ an Aroidea, with leaves measuring from eight to 
twelve feet in circumference, after having been roasted, and thus deprived of acridity, are eaten by the 
natives of the Sandwich Islands." Forster (Plant. Escul. p. 27) also alludes to it, 
IV. Rhaphidophora, Hassk. Cat. Plant. Bog. p. 58; Schott, Prodr. Aroid. p. 377; ejusd. 
Gen. n. 77. tab. 77.  Spadix sessilis, floseulis hermaphroditis ubique obsessus.  Pistilla apice hebe- 
tato-convexa, stylo plus minusve conico producto, stigmate rotundato demum oblongulo. Ovaria 
incomplete 2-locularia (hemiphragmatibus 2 oppositis acie non contiguis), loculamentis oo-ovulatis. 
Ovula longe funiculata, anatropa, e placenta septifixa, superposite exserta, in utramque cavitatem 
directa. Antheree ultra pistilla producte. Bacce epicarpii supremam partem operculi modo reji- 
cientes, reliqua parte remanente. Semen ellipsoideum, albuminosum. Embryo axilis.—Frutices 
scandentes, radicantes. Petioli in geniculum usque sulcati, ultra medium rarius ad apicem vagi- 
nati, vagina alba, marcescenti-decidua. Lamina fol. integerrima in pinnatisectum usque, foramini- 
bus manifestis v. 0. Pedunculi solitarii. Spatha flava. Baccæ epicarpio glauco, intus aurantiaces. 
1. R. Vitiensis, (sp. nov.) Schott in Seem. Bonplandia, vol. ix. p. 367; vagin stipulares et 
bracteales stupose decompositz ; petiolus 7-14-pollicaris, in juventute ad apicem fere usque vagi- 
natus; folii lamina ambitu oblongo-ovata v. oblonga, basi subcordata, profunde, ad costam fere, pin- 
natisecta, 7-8 pollices longa, 5-10 pollices lata, segmentis utrinque 5-12, patentibus v. patentissi- 
mis, infimis supremisque exceptis, subzequalibus, linearibus, apice sensim breviterque dilatato trun- 
catis et latere superiore oblique falcato-acuminatis, vena nerviformi solitaria percursis, venis auxili- 
aribus costalibus crebris, omnibus tenuissimis; pedunculus bipollicaris v. paullo longior; spatha sub- 
6-pollicaris, acuminato-cuspidata; spadix subtripollicaris; stigma subsessile.—Scindapsus Forsteri, 
Endl. in Ann. Wien. Mus. vol. i. p. 161. JDracontium pertusum, Forst. Prodr. n. 331, non Mill. 
Nomen vernac. Vitiense, “ Waloa."— Common in most Vitian Islands (Seemann! n. 654). Also 
found in Tana, New Hebrides (Forster !). 
* Observatio I. Proxima R. pinnate, Timorensi, eui fol. lamina basi haud cordata, minus profunde 
secta, segmenta e lata basi apicem versus manifeste angustata, ven: auxiliares costales crassiores ra- 
rioresque. - ; 
` "Observatio II, An planta Rumphii eadem ac Timorensis ? 
