341 



as a rale, exceed four feet in length. Being a very accessible and at the 

 same time a very common plant, no wanderer in the mountain forests 

 can fail to observe its intiorescence. This consists of greeuish or pur- 

 l)lish Hask-shaped organs, resembling huge unopened buds, growing 

 upright in groups upon the rhizome, at the bases of the leaf-stalks. 



The tlower case has about the size and very much the shape of a 

 sixteen ounce Florence liask. When cut open and examined it is 

 found to consist of a thick and leathery spathe wrapi>ed in a spiral 

 about an upright, cylindrical spadix. The enveloping spathe tightly 

 clasps in its embrace the upper, pollen-producing portion of the spadix, 

 but expanding below, leaves the fruiting portion free, in a cavity which 

 is partially filled with a mucilaginous liquid. All evaporation is pre- 

 vented by the overlapping of the spathe, and the floral organs thus 

 hermetically sealed within the flask would seem to be destined to self- 

 fertilization most rigidly enforced. Indeed it is difficult to conceive 

 how any fertilization could be accomplished by the plant itself, since 

 the pollen tubes of the spadix, being tightly enrolled by the inner folds 

 of the spathe, are unable to give forth their fertilizing grains. 



During a recent visit to the island of Montserrat, one of the Leeward 

 group of the Lesser Antilles, I had occasion to observe that the matur- 

 ing flowers of this plant are infested with numerous larvte of sap- 

 loving beetles and flies, which swarm in the flower-cases, feeding upon 

 the envelope and breaking it down, until at last theri[»ening fruits sur- 

 rounding the base of the spadix are stripped of their covering and stand 

 exposed, to be carried away by birds and other agencies which aid in 

 the dissemination of the seed. The immature inflorescence, however, 

 contained at first no insects, but in every case, sooner or later, a 

 brownish spot, caused apparently by a rot-fungus, made its appearance 

 upon the exterior of the flower-case (spathe). It was remarked that 

 the fungus spot invariably occupied the same position, occurring 

 always at the extreme outer edge of the overlapping spathe, opposite a 

 deep sinus which cuts into the margin. The accompanying diagrams, 

 although they do not attempt to reproduce exactly the structure of the 

 floral organs, will vserve to illustrate the general features of the inflo- 

 resceuce. Fig. 33 a represents the flask-like spathe upon which the 

 fungus spot will be seen in process of development. Fig. 33 h gives 

 a section of the same, showing the internal cavity, and the spadix with 

 its base immersed in li<piid, the surface of which is indicated by a 

 horizontal line.* 



* Fig. 33 b is reproduced from rough field notes, and does not present an actual 

 section of tiie spathe, in wliich the upper male portion of tlie spadix is enrolled 

 within the inner tiap of tlie spathe. The upper portion of the indexed spatlie goes 

 more than once around the spadix, which does not come in contact with the outer 

 walls as shown in the figure. Of the double envelope thus formed, the inner walls 

 should descend around the spadix very nearly to the surface of the liquid. 



1L'L*83— No. 4 5 



