193 



#iHSiual Htliclts. 



FOUE NEW GENERA OF AIKJIDE.E. 



By N. E. Brown, A.L.S. 



(Tabs. 230 & 231.) 



^ PSEUDODRACONTIUM, n. g. 



Spatlie boat-shaped, very shortly convolute at the base. Spadix 

 monoecious, appendiculate, free, sessile ; male and female portions 

 contiguous, appendix stipitate, more or less deeply fissured. Peri- 

 anth none. Ovaries free, crowded, subglobose (or ovoid ?), one-celled 

 with one basal, subsessile, erect, anatropous ovule ; style very short, 

 stigma simple. Male flowers scattered, stamens 3-6, free (or in some 

 flowers more or less united in a column) ; anthers continuous with 

 the filaments, subglobose or obcordate, dehiscing by two small, 

 linear, oblique, extrorse, subapical slits. Piootstock tuberous. Leaf 

 solitary, contemporary with the flowers, petiole very shortly vagi- 

 nate at base, three-branched at apex, all the branches pinnately 

 divided, or the middle branch reduced to one entire or slightly 

 lobed leaflet. Primary lateral veins of the leaflets numerous, 

 parallel, nearly straight, uniting in a continuous intramarginal 

 vein, outside of which close to the margin is a second intramarginal 

 vein. Peduncle solitary, erect. 



Species 2 (or 3 ? ), natives of Cochin China. This distinct and 

 remarkable genus belongs to the tribe AynorphophallecB, and should be 

 placed next to the genus Thojiisonia. The very imperfectly known 

 genus GorgonicUum is probably a near ally. 



The characters of the two species of this genus here described 

 are taken from living specimens, and in both, the middle branch of 

 the lamina of the leaf bore but one leaflet, entii-e in P. Lacourii, 

 and with a small basal lobe on one side in P. anomalum ; but m a 

 drawing of a plant belonging to this genus kindly sent to me by 

 Dr. L. Pierre, Director of the Botanic Garden, Saigon, the middle 

 branch of the lamina is pinnatipartite like the lateral branches, 

 and the ovary is represented of a distinct ovoid form, without a 

 distinct style as there is in the two species here described ; it will 

 therefore i^robably prove to be a third species of the genus. 



P. ANOMALUM, n. sp. [Tab. 231, fig. II.] — Tuber depressed 

 napiform. Petiole 1-| ft. long, |-inch thick at base, terete, finely 

 sulcate striate, glabrous, pale olive-green, marked with numerous 

 irregular blotches and dots of blackish, and parallel striae of dark 

 olive. Middle segment of the lamina (in the only specimen seen) 

 with one oblong acute leaflet 7 inches long, 2:^ inches broad, with 

 a small oblong acute lobe on one side at the base ; the lateral seg- 



N. s. VOL. 11. [July, 1882.] 2 c 



