TiO NEW SPECIES OF PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS. 



like it in aspect, as handsome if the element of size be disregarded, closely 

 allied to it in the construction of its flowers, and on botanical grounds 

 equally interesting. Like the Godtcitiia, this Aroid was first grown in 

 this country by Mr. W. Bull, in one of whose stoves the plant was in 

 bloom in January, 1870. Its nearest ally seems to be the old Dracontium 

 poly phj Hum, from which it differs in one or two important points. The 

 native country of our present plant is western tropical Africa, while D. 

 polyphylluni. is a native of Surinam. From Godicinia our plant differs in 

 the simultaneous production of leaf and flower, in the stamens being equal 

 in number to the segments of the perianth, not twice their number, etc. 

 Other points of difierence may be seen by comparing the description of 

 that plant with that we now subjoin. Root-stock or corm of the size of 

 a small Turnip, of a depressed spheroidal form, giving off fleshy roots 

 from its upper surface only, exactly as in some Cyclamens. Leaves one, 

 or sometimes two, arising from the stock. Leaf-stalk erect, 5-6 feet high 

 and upwards, terete or nearly so, as thick as a man's thumb, or thicker at 

 the base, gradually tapering upwards, covered by an epidermis which is 

 smooth and pinkish above, but from the middle downwards is marked by 

 small, scattered, conical asperities, and wavy bands or blotches of a 

 purplish colour mottled with white. The interior of the leaf-stalk is 

 traversed by a great number of longitudinal air-canals, somewhat sym- 

 metrically disposed, the larger in the centre, the smaller at the circum- 

 ference. The upper extremity of the leaf-stalk divides into three primary 

 branches, which are bent horizontally nearly at right angles to the main 

 stalk, and each of which is terete and slightly channelled on the upper 

 surface; the central branch is undivided, but each of the two lateral ones 

 divides about 4 inches from its base into two widely divergent branchlets. 

 The blade of the leaf spreads horizontally, measures 3-4 feet across, and 

 is pedately divided into three (or into five) main subdivisions, one central 

 and four lateral, two on each side ; of these latter the uppermost pair are 

 again dichotomously divided towards the apex. Each of the main sub- 

 divisions measures from 12-15 inches in length, is obovate in general 

 outline, dark green above, paler beneath, perfectly smooth, unequally and 

 uninterruptedly pinnatipartite; the central lobes of each of these main 

 subdivisions are opposite to each other and larger than the rest, which are 

 alternate and decurrent at the base along the upper side of the rachis, 

 thus connecting all the segments together; the ultimate segments or par- 

 titions are in all cases oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, perforated here 

 and there by irregular holes (d), and traversed by a central rib, promi- 

 nent on the under- surface, and from the sides of which are given off 

 arcuate secondary veins, which become confluent into an intramarginal 

 nerve running round the segment ; the scape or peduncle is erect, terete, 

 5-6 inches high, as thick as a swan's quill, smooth, rosy-pink, and having 

 precisely the same anatomical structure as the leaf-stalk, but witli smaller 

 cells and air-canals ; the spathe is erect, boat-shaped, leathery, convolute 

 at the extreme base, prolonged above into a long incurved acumen, ex- 

 ternally convex, smooth, purplish-brown, traversed by 7-9 prominent 

 nerves, converging at the apex, internally concave, smooth, rich purple in 

 colour; the spadix is supported within the spathe on a short cylindrical 

 rosy stalk, ^ inch long, as thick as a goose-quill ; the spadix itself is 

 erect, cylindrical, about 2 inches long, as thick as a swan's quill, and 

 densely covered with ebracteate, monochlamydcous, hermaphrodite flowers 



