OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 137 



differing in just the respects noted above from the palm of Cantilles 

 Canon. It is very i)robubIe that the true W.Jilifera occurs also north 

 of the boundary iu the mountains bordering the Colorado River. In 

 consequence of the demand for seeds of two species which collectors 

 have not learned to distinguish, it is probable that seedsmen have not 

 always been scrupulous in regard to the names under which the 

 supply was distributed. 



Peltandra undulata, Raf. The Arum Virgimcum of Linnaeus, 

 with which the common Peltandra of the Northern States has 

 usually been considered identical, was a composite species, and both 

 of its component parts are uncertain. The plant described in Ilort. 

 Cliff, was probably a cultivated one, said by Linna'us to have been 

 of American origin, but it certainly could not have been from the 

 United States, as the colors ascribed to it prove beyond doubt. His 

 other reference under the species is to the plant described by Clayton 

 in the Flora Virginica of Gronovius, and the identification here is 

 rendered doubtful by Clayton's phrase, " radice tuberosa, Rapa? simili, 

 fervida et acerrima." The root of Peltandra has no resemblance to 

 that of a radish or turnip, nor is it hot or very acrid. 



Rafinesque made his P. undulata the type of the genus, " having 



3 to 5 seeds and probably the real Arum Virginicum of Clayton and 

 Linnaeus." Other species, as P. Canadensis, P. lalifolia, P. hetero- 

 phylla, etc., he described as having one or two or three seeds. The 

 species, however, is exceedingly variable in many respects. Extreme 

 forms received from Mr. A. Commons of Wilmington, Del., seemed to 

 indicate that two species might perhaps be distinguished ; but a study 

 of the forms growing near Cambridge shows that no division can be 

 safely made. The leaves vary from narrowly sagittate, with acute or 

 acuminate or more or less obtuse lobes, to very broadly hastate, the 

 broader forms eithrr triangular or more or less elliptical in general 

 outline. The spathe and spadix are more or less oblique at base, the 

 former from 4 to 8 inches in length and the spadix from 2 to 6 inches, 

 bearing from 20 to 80 pistillate flowers, the fertile portion being from 



4 to 12 lines long. The ovaries contain 1 to o amphitropous ovules, 

 and the short style bears a more or less oblique truncate stigma. 

 The mass of fruit enclosed in the persistent base of the spathe is \\^ 

 to 3 inches long, the smaller with 1 -seeded fruits about 4 lines in 

 diameter, those of the larger often ^ inch long or more and 1-3-seeded. 

 The white staminodia among the ovaries are irregular in form and 

 arrangement, distinct, and much shorter than the ovary, never united 

 into a cup or nearly equalling it, as represented by Schott and usu- 



