AROIDS 69 



readily. Writing about this tropical Aroid fifty years ago 

 Dr. Lindley said : " Viewed as a fruit-bearing plant its 

 interest is exceptional ; for although it is some years grow- 

 ing to a flowering age and the fruit takes twelve months to 

 ripen, yet as supplying a novel article of dessert of the 

 richest and most recherchi character, it might be usefully 

 cultivated for its produce in those establishments where a 

 variety of fruits is prized and where space can be afforded." 

 The plants at Kew fruit annually, and when at their best 

 their fragrance permeates the whole house. 



Another remarkable species of Monstera, introduced 

 from Nicaragua in 1870, was for many years cultivated 

 under the name of Marcgravia paradoxa. In its juvenile 

 or clinging form this plant has leaves of the size and shape 

 of average oyster shells, which, together with the stem, 

 are pressed flat against a tree trunk, up which it climbs 

 for 12 or 15 feet, when it changes in habit and the 

 leaves become nearly a yard long and wide, deeply pin- 

 nate as in some big Polypodium, and no more like the 

 juvenile leaves than a penny is like a peacock's feather. 

 Another plant, known in some gardens as Pothos aurea, 

 and having when young short-stalked, roundish, ovate 

 leaves 6 inches long and coloured green and yellow, 

 grew up at Kew into a big, pinnate-leaved Rhaphi- 

 dophora. 



Marcgravia proper is a genus which may be briefly 

 described here. The species are epiphytic climbers, dimor- 

 phic, as the Ivy is, the juvenile leaves being small and 

 pressed flat against the host plant, whilst those on mature 

 shoots are thick and fleshy, and these shoots do not 

 attempt to cling. The flowers are known to be handsome, 

 but although I have known several species in cultivation, 



