248 CHAPTER XXXIII. 



deep port- wine colour : a beautiful object, but the 

 smell is not to be expressed in words. It is worse . 

 than the Carrion Plant (Stapelia), and that is bad 

 enough. If you cut out the spadix, you may bring 

 the flower into the house and admire it with impunity. 

 A gardener near us grows a good many of these 

 Arums, but they do not seem to be in much demand. 

 They thrive in the open air. On the banks of the 

 Cephisus this plant reaches a height of six feet, the 

 spathe alone measuring close on a yard. The 

 Oriental Cashmere pattern on carpets and shawls is 

 traced by Professor Jacobsthal to an imitation of 

 the form of this gigantic spathe. It is said that 

 snakes will not approach the plant. 



Another " Perfumed Plant," the fungus called 

 Clathrus, was found by my daughter on the Mount 

 Boron. Beautiful and curious though it is, we did 

 not bring it home. Yet another fetid fungus I have 

 more than once perceived near Nice : one does not 

 care to gather it. The English name is more forcible 

 than elegant. 



A propos of this plant, Dr. Alfred Eussel Wallace 

 told me an amusing story. Near one end of his 

 miniature Botanic garden, in Parkstone, stands a 

 pillar-box. People posting letters here were annoyed 

 by a pestilent smell. They supposed that the drains 

 were out of order. Or possibly they imagined that 

 the great Naturalist had brought home from the 

 Malay Archipelago, or from the Valley of the Amazon, 

 some evil weed that was poisoning the air. So they 

 reported the matter to the Post Office. At last the 

 complaints became so numerous that the Postal 

 authorities sent an official to call upon Dr. Wallace 



