195 
the surrounding coppices and rocks for more specimens ; and to my 
surprise I found the yellow-spadix Arum to be the prevalent repre- 
sentative of the family, and abundant everywhere ; whereas I had 
some difficulty in finding specimens of Arum maculatum, and those I 
did find were all in fruit, with one or two exceptions. It was not 
until the latter end of August that I had an opportunity of examining 
ripe fruit of the other plant, as none matured itself before that time. 
The description by Koch of Arum Italicum is as follows :— 
* Arum Italicum. — Foliis hastato-sagittatis albo-venosis. Spa- 
dice recto. Spatha breviori clavato, clava stipitem suum equante.— 
In vineis et sylvaticis. Regionibus calidis—April—Spadix Flavus.” 
With this description, so far as it goes, my plant accords; 
and from examination of the fruit and buds I am enabled to 
add, that the fruit of the Isle-of-Wight Arum Italicum is twice the 
size of that of A. maculatum, and produced in much more elongated 
spikes. The buds also are double the size, and fewer in the berry 
than in A. maculatum, seldom exceeding three in each berry ; in A. 
maculatum there are frequently six and eight. The average height of 
the fruit-stalks in my plant is two feet, and they are sheathed by the 
foot-stalks of the leaves to the height of four or five inches from their 
base ; the leaves remain green contemporaneously with the fruit, but 
eventually disappear, though only for a jshort time, as the Arum is 
now (November) again in full leaf. 
The plant I have thus ventured to describe is abundant in the cop- 
pices and amongst rocks and ivy at Steephill Castle and the neigh- 
bourhood. It appears to me to be certainly distinct from Arum 
maculatum ; and I only hope that an examination next year, by more 
competent botanists than myself, may establish its title to the name 
of Arum Italicum.* 
* Specimens of the plant were exhibited by the author to the members of the Phi- 
losophical and Scientific Society at the reading of the paper, and compared with spe- 
cimens of Arum Italicum from the garden of St. John’s, near Ryde, kindly brought 
for that purpose by Mr. Lawrence, who, many years since, received the plant from Mr. 
Borrer. The slight difference between the plants thus compared appeared to the 
Members present to be only such as the different circumstances of their growth would 
fully account for. For future comparison wild plants from Steephill have been planted 
in St. John’s garden ; while offsets from Mr. Borrer's stock have been consigned to 
the rocky banks of Steephill, under the eye of the author of the above paper.— Benj. 
Barrow ; Hon. Sec. Phil. and Scient. Soc. of I. W. 
