﻿408 ON THE BOTANY OF JAPAN. 



Finally, Torreya midfera of Japan, T. Californica, Torr., of the mountains of Cali- 

 fornia, and T. taxifoUa, Am,, of Florida, — the only species known, — appear to be so 

 much alike, that, if they all belonged to one region, it is most probable they would 

 never have been distinguished. 



Aroidece. The genus Ariseema is mainly divided between the Himalayo-Javan and 

 Japanese region, and Eastern America, being unknown on the western side of either 

 continent. We have three species in the United States east of the Mississippi ; six 

 are recorded from Japan, of which four are in the present collection, including what I 

 take for Blume's A. htiscctum (founded on the foliage only). But this is related to A. 

 Japonimm rather than to A. Tlmnhergii ; indeed, it might be regarded as a slender 

 variety of the former species, with a green spathe and a long peduncle, except for the 

 sterile appendage of the spadix, wiiich is narrower and cylindrical, scarcely if at all 

 thickened upwards. 



In fresh-water marshes at Hakodadi, Mr. Wright gathered more advanced and com- 

 plete specimens of an Aroideous plant, which had also been detected by Drs. Williams 

 and Morrow, but was omitted in the published account of that collection. I may now 

 state that the plant is an evident congener of Dracontium Camtschatcense, Linn, (the 

 Si/)nplocarpus Kamtschaticus of Bongard), which occurs on the northwest coast of 

 America ; indeed, it appears to differ only in having no spathe, unless the slender 

 sheath of the scape, like that of Orontium, without any lamina, be so called. These 

 plants do not belong to Si/mjAocarims (although they represent that genus and Oron- 

 tium likewise — both strictly Eastern American genera), but constitute a w^ell- 

 marked new genus, between these two, and approaching Dracontium in the generally 

 bilocular ovary. From our Skunk-Cabbage the new genus is distinguished by the 

 elongated scape, the membranaceous spatha or sheath, the spiciform spadix, the mem- 

 branaceous perianth, the horizontal orthotropous ovules, and probably by the nature 

 of the fruit, which I have not seen mature.* I lay little stress upon the bilocular 

 ovary, because one of the cells is occasionally abortive or wanting in the Japanese 



• ARCTIODEACON, Nov. Gen. 



Spadix nudus, scapum terminans, cylindricus. Flores hermaplu-oditi. Perigoniiim tetraphyllum, basi ovarii 

 adnatum, phyllis obovatis membranaceis subconcavis. Stamina 4 : filamenta plana : antherse extrorsae, bilo- 

 culares, loculis ovalibus rima longitudinali ex apice fere ad basim deLiscentibus. Ovai-ium biloculare, rarius 

 abortu uniloculare : stylus conicus, stigmate dcpresso simplici terminatus. Ovula in loculis solitaria, dissepi- 

 mento paullo supra basim inserta, horizontalia, orthotropa. Pericarpia carnosa, 1 - 2-sperma, in recepta- 

 culum commune spongiosum coalescentia, stylo crasso-conico acuto apiculata. Semina baud visa. — Herbaj 

 paludosse, boreali-Pacificae, acaules ; foliis magnis Symplocarpi cum scapo elongato coetaneis e rhizomate crasso 



