150 THE PI.ANT WORLD 



Briefer Articles. 



THE LLEREN: A RARE ROOT CROP. 



Though perhaps one of the oldest cultivated plants, Calathea allouya 

 is almost unknown outside of the West Indies ; it is occasionally cultiva- 

 ted in Trinidad and several other of the British Antilles but appears to 

 attain its greatest development and popularity in Porto Rico. 



Taxonomically it stands in the Zingiberaceae near Phrynium. In 

 habit above ground it resembles the Turmerics (Curcuma) but has the 

 pseudo-stem of Amomuni ; the subterranean habit is very similar to that 

 of some of the Phryniums. According to Grisebach, the flower is small, 

 white, and borne in roundish heads, like those of ginger — very unlike 

 the large, fragrant, pale lilac, radical flower of Calathea (^Phrynimn) zeb- 

 rina . 



The clumping habit of the family is exemplified in the slow-spread- 

 ing cluster of 10 to 25 loosely attached " heads, " each of which bears a 

 false stem composed of 4 to 8 erect, sheathing petioles. These " heads " 

 may be considered as a kind of short stem, some 2 to 3 inches long and 

 about 1 inch in diameter, or as a rhizome lying just beneath the surface 

 of the soil and receiving at its base the roots and tuber stipes. New 

 shoots are produced either from the tip of the " head " or from the side ; 

 thus the individual head is at least biennial while the clump is, of course, 

 perennial. Growth ceases at the end of the rainy season, about Decem- 

 ber, and begins about April ; the mat of dead leaves serves to protect the 

 succulent, truncate " heads" from the fierce winter's sun. 



The oblong-linear or linear-lanceolate leaf blade tapers abruptly at 

 the tip but runs very gradually at the base into the slender, yellowish, 

 channelled petiole. The strong veins, running at a rather small angle 

 with the miario, especially near the base, give the tamina a somewhat 

 corrugated appearance; and though the petiole is always erect and rather 

 stout, the midrib allows the long blade to droop gracefully. 



Strong clumps growing in rich, cool soil or in partial shade attain a 

 height of 3 or even 4 feet, the leaves from the central heads being much 

 taller than those from the outside of the clump. By nature the lyleren 

 is evidently a plant of the jungle and shaded river banks. At present it 

 does not appear to grow wild anywhere in Porto Rico ; like the * ' Yautia ' ' 

 (^Xanthosoma .spp.), it seems to have become through its hundreds of 

 centuries of domestication an utter slave to human husbandry. In fact 

 it rarely flowers and never (?) produces seed ; while it is not impossible 

 to find natives who will admit having seen the large " Yautia" (Xanth- 

 osoma) flowers, I have been unable to find one who remembered seeing 

 those of the lyleren. 



