Vol. xxixj ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 29I 



terious gases of the muddy marshes where it grows, and it is 

 perhaps on this account that it is held sacred on the west 

 coast of Africa, the priests consecrating it in vases filled with 

 water in which it is left to grow. A decoction of the plant is 

 considered demulcent and refrigerant, and is prescribed in 

 dysuria and other diseases of the urinary passages. In India 

 the leaves are applied to hemorrhoids. The plant is said to 

 be so acrid that in Jamaica the water taken from the tanks 

 where it grows is so impregnated with acridity that it causes 

 bloody fiux." 



This plant has the general appearance of a loose rosette of 

 green leaves. These leaves are wedge-shaped, being broad 

 and somewhat flattened at the apical end, and narrowly tapered 

 at the basal end. Many have a central indentation at the api- 

 cal end. On healthy plants the leaves are of firm texture and 

 a bright green in color. They are thickly clothed with fine 

 downy hairs. A small flower-bearing bract arises near the 

 base of each foliage leaf. Each bract contains a male and a 

 female flower attached to an adnate spadix. The flowers are 

 very small, white, inconspicuous and unisexual. The male 

 flowers are arranged in whorls with two very short stamens. 

 The female flowers are solitary. The ovaries are single-celled 

 and contain many small seeds. From near the base of each 

 leaf there also springs a slender shoot or runner which extends 

 away from the parent plant and develops a young plant at its 

 apical end. Sometimes this young shoot plant becomes sep- 

 arated from' the parent plant very quickly, but occasionally it 

 in turn sends out its plant shoot before the connecting runner 

 is broken. Thus at times three generations of plants may be 

 found still attached to each other, although this does not com- 

 monly occur. 



The roots of a large plant consist of innumerable long, slen- 

 der, feathery filaments. 



Upon the bursting of the seed pods the small seeds drop 

 down beneath the surface of the w^ater, lodging in the root 

 masses if the plants be closely packed; if not, they sink to the 

 bottom. After remaining in the water for approximately ten 



