THE PLANT WORLD 225 



THE GUAPA, AN EGREGIOUS ECONOMIC. 



As ITS local name implies, the Porto Rican Guapa iDracontium 

 asperum C. Koch) is a strikingly beautiful plant of unusual aspect. 



This most interesting aroid was reported long ago from Brazil, but 

 it seems to have been lost sight of until it turned up recently as an eco- 

 nomic in Porto Rico. And even here it is never cultivated by the natives, 

 being left to fight its own battles with the tangled vegetation in the 

 Dumb-cane (^DicffenbacJiia seguinc) thickets and cool mountain ravines. 



In the pedately multifid leaf and large conn a relationship with 

 Amorphophallus is indicated, but the spathe is comparatively very small 

 and the corm increases year by year without being exhausted by flower- 

 ing. 



The leaf, which is usually single, frequentlj' stands 6 and even 8 feet 

 high, with a circumference of some 15 or 20 feet around the ijedately 

 decompound blade. The slender erect petiole is covered with granula- 

 tions and minute spine-like bodies oi many colors which scintillate with 

 a beautiful iridescence in the sunlight ; its internal structtu'e is coarse 

 like that of the Banana. The blade is borne upon three nearly equi- 

 distant ribs which join the petiole at a small angle ; its tissue is broken, 

 or rather torn, into very irregular flutings and decussations, thus form- 

 ing numerous holes as in Monster a deliciosa. 



The corm grows slowly, taking some five years to attain a diameter 

 of six inches. A specimen over one foot in diameter has been photo- 

 graphed. The crowded offsets are loosely attached to the convex upper 

 surface around the base of the petiole ; these are flattened, obovate, more 

 or less branched, and from one to two inches long. The under surface of 

 the corm is flat or even quite sharpl^^ concave in old specimens, and since 

 it bears no roots is smooth and lighter colored. 



Though not considered equal to the native " Yautias " iXanthosoma 

 spp.), these corms, in times of scarcity of other roots, are searched out 

 by the " jiberos " or country people. When fresh the starchy matter is 

 of a yellowish color, firm and of fine texture without fibrous tissue ; 

 when cooked the color becomes orange or reddish and in consistency and 

 flavor resembles a rich Hubbard squash. 



Though probably 99 per cent of the new plants arise from offsets, 

 the Guapa knows another way, more commendable, if less sure — .seeds. 



The reddish mauve spathe is borne on a short stalk of the same color, 

 which arises from the center of the corm after the leaf has died down in 

 the dry season. Flecks and dashes of olive, pink and black are scattered 

 over the outside while the interior shades from purple in the upper por- 

 tion to olive maroon below. The top of the spathe is slightly hooded so 

 that the comparatively small oval opening appears at one side ; there is 



