504 MONOECIA MONANDRIA. AlUM. 



Teling. Suiei Kunila. 



A native of the shady mango groves, near Samulkota, 

 where the soil is pretty dry, and fertile. Flowering time the 

 beo'inning of the rains. 



Root perennial, tuberous, nearly round, the size of a pullet's 

 egg, white, with small inequalities, many fibres issue from the 

 the apex, round the insertion of the leaves, and flower ; stem- 

 less. Leaves radical, petioled, deeply three-lobed; lohes 

 ovate, pointed, a little scolloped, smooth, round the under 

 side, parallel with the margins and near it runs a double 

 nerve about eight or ten inches broad, and the same length. 

 Petioles erect, round, tapering, striated, about twelve inches 

 long at the base, vaginated, and embracing one another. 

 Scape axillary, very short, j ust sufficiently long to elevate the 

 spathe above the ground. Spathe shorter than the petioles, 

 striated, erect ; the inside red ; the outside herbaceous green. 

 Spadix, the base surrounded with the germs, crowned with 

 many, yellow, ramous filaments; the middle swelled with 

 theanthers, above them there is no second order of filaments. 

 Club scarlet coloured, as long as all the rest of the spadix, 

 erect, tapering, subulate, from a concave broad base, to a 

 point which is neither obtuse nor sharp. 



JVote. This seems to me to differ from divaricatum and tri- 

 lobatum. From the former in having deeply three-lobed, 

 pointed leaves, and excessively acrid roots ; and from the lat- 

 ter not only on account of the different form of the leaves, but 

 because here the spathe is erect, with a straight point; there 

 drooping, Avith the long point twisted like a screw ; here are 

 also ramous fibres growino- on the oerms. 



The roots (when fresh) are exceedingly acrid, more so than 

 those of A. Dracunculus, or maculatum. The natives ap- 

 ply them in cataplasams, to discuss or bring forward scir- 

 rhous tumours. They also apply them externally to the bite 

 of venomous snakes, at the same time giving inwardly about 

 the size of a field bean. 



It is certainly a most powerful stimulant, in proper hands 



