PREFACE. 15^ 



the foliage of this had a somewhat yellowish and 

 unhealthy appearance. The great heads of leaves then 

 began oue by one to fall over, evidently from a rotting 

 of the stem at the 'neck.' They were removed, but 

 the mischief continued and eventually it became 

 necessary to sacrifice the whole plant." The disease 

 was almost certainly due to the attacks of a fungus, 

 Melanconium Pandani, which has been very destruc- 

 tive to Screw Pines in European Botanic Gardens. 



Aroids, 



Aroideoe are a well-marked order of plants represented 

 in our own flora by the '' Cuckoo-pint " of our hedge- 

 rows. Some 900 species are known, of which 360 are 

 cultivated at Kew. They vary in habit from terrestial 

 herbs to tall climbers. A large proportion are tropical 

 and these have since 1863 been cultivated in No. I. 

 house, the architectural conservatory removed by 

 William TV. in 1836 from Buckingham Palace to serve 

 the purpose of a Palm House. 



Aiton, in the first edition of the Hortus Kewensis 

 (1787) records 20 species ; the second (1813) gives 44 

 as grown at Kew. Smith (Records, p. 92) enumerates 

 148 as in cultivation in 1864. In Appendix II. to the 

 Kew Report for 1877 a catalogue is given of 250 

 species and varieties. 



One species, without doubt the most remarkable of 

 the order, Aonorphophallus Titanuon, is no longer in 

 the Kew collection. A full description of it is given 

 in the Bot Mag. (tt. 7153-5). 



