heat, light, and moisture ; and in part dejiendent upon its 

 own specific nature. The strong stem that bears its leaves 

 and spathes is the same part which, in the European Arum, 

 remains under ground, in the form of a round leafless tuber. 

 When it is concentrated, as in the latter case, it contains 

 a large quantity of nutritious fascula, mixed with an 

 acrid principle, while in a diffuse state the fascula disap- 

 pears, and the acrid part alone remains. Hence the arbo- 

 rescent Araceous plants are simply dangerous, while the 

 tuberous kinds are both dangerous and nutritious, or, the 

 dangerous parts being removed by washing, simply nutri- 

 tious. 



Caladium, like many of the genera of the Botanists of 

 the last age, was a heterogeneous assemblage of various 

 plants, having only a sort of external, pi'ima facie, resem- 

 blance ; it is now confined to certain tuberous kinds, while 

 the caulescent species go into other genera, of which Philo- 

 dendron is one. 



The species now represented is a native of Brazil, and 

 consequently requires to be cultivated in the stove. For the 

 opportunity of figuring it I am indebted to the Rev. 

 Frederick Beadon of North Stoneham, from whom I received 

 it in December last. Pothos crassinervia is a very different 

 plant. 



In the plate — 1. is the inside of an anther; 2. its outside; 

 3. a section shewing the four cells in pairs; 4. is an ovary ; 

 and 5. a longitudinal section of it, shewing the position of 

 the ovules, and the form of the stigma. 



