1 



all iue more or less beset with prickles, varying in length, sharp and horny, subulate, that is, swollen at the 



base, very much like the sting of a nettle in shape. 



Peduncle or sca^e radical, longer than the petiole and rising above the sm-face of the water when in flower, 

 terete, prickly, varying in size, in the recent plant sometimes an inch thick, single-flowered. Flotoer of the same 

 gigantic dimensions in proportion with the leaf in ; ^k(7 pear-shaped (Tab. 3. f. 1); when expanded our specimen 

 here figured (Tab. 2) measm-ed rather more than a foot in diameter, (giving a circumference of thirty nine 

 inches); but specimens in their native rivers, have been ascertained to be fifteen inches in diameter (forty -five in 

 circumference), fragrant. The cal^xis deeply quadrifid; the tnbe turbinate, tawny-colourcd, very prickly, adnata 

 with the ovary ; the segments or sepals large, oval, purple-brown, concave, deciduous, a little prickly on the 

 outside towards the base, rather shorter than the petals. From "vvithin, the mouth of the tube of the calyx (at, 

 the very base of the segments) extends itself into an annular tonis, which bears the petals and stamens. Petals 

 very numerous, the outer ones spreading and longer than the calyx, oblong, concave, obtuse, white, the inner ones 

 gradually becoming narrower, much acuminated and insensibly passing into the filaments and becoming deeply 

 coloured with purple or full rose. 8tame?is (perfect ones) in about two series, large, subulate, fleshy, gracefully 

 incurved below, the rest erect ; anih&r-celh double, Ihiear, introrse, occupying the inner face of the filament, 

 below the apex. Within these fertile stamens is another annular circle bearing a double series of abortive filaments 

 only ; these, with their lower portion, form an arch over the stigmas, the upper half being erect. 



Ovary adnate with the whole length of the pricldy tube of the calyx, and therefore turbinate like it, with a 

 deep radiated depression or cavity at the top, and in the centre an elevated umbo or short pyramidal column : 

 it may be therefore termed cup-shaped, with a thick fleshy base, having air-cefls or cavities extending downwards 

 into the peduncle ; in the upper part of this substance, forming, as it were, the rim of the cup, there stand in a 

 circle, placed with the greatest regularity, about twenty-six to thirty compressed cells, their parietes bearing several 

 ovules attached to reticulated /«;2«c?;/;. From the inner edge of the cavity, just beneath the inner crown of sterile 



F 



stamens, and articulated, as it were, at their base (or the base of the torus) rises a circle of stigmas, as many as 

 there are cells in the ovary, large, fleshy, ovate, acuminated, laterally compressed, but goniculutcd, so to speak, in 

 the middle ; that is, the lower half of them is erect, and the upper half bent at an angle so as to lie horizontally over 



r 



the cavity at the top of the ovary, and parallel or on the same plane with the base of the sterile stamens : the back 

 of these stigmas is slightly grooved and is the stigmatic smface. 



I much regret I can say nothing of i\\Q fruit from my own observation; but judging from the figure given 

 of it by Sir Robert Schomburgk (see our Tab. 4. f. 6), it is a large cyathiform, truncate, fleshy, green, prickly 

 herrg, the margin even ; bearing many oval, dark brown, almost black seeds. 



Tab. 1. 



r 



An exceedingly reduced representation of the plant, in sitti, chiefly done from Sir it, IL Scliomburgk's scene in liis 'Views in British 

 Guiana ^ showing the flower, nncxpanded bud, and fully formed leaves and fmit. 



Tab. 2. 



This plate cxliibits a flower of the natural size^ delineated from a very perfect specimen in spirits, in the author's possession, brought by 

 Mr- Bridges from Boli\ia, A portion of the leaf is given, supposed to be a transverse section taken near the petiole, but so much fore -shortened 

 (to allow of its being introduced at all) as to convey little idea of the magiiifieence of the entire foliage ; drawn from a fine dried specimen in 

 the anthor*s possession, obtained from Boli\ia, 



Tab. 3. 



Fig 1. Exhibits an unexpanded flower (from Bolivia) : — natural size. Vig. 2, A portionof the underside of the leaf (wa^m"a?5j>^) shomng 

 more particularly the remarkable venation. Fig. 3- A vertical section of the inferior ovary, with the stamens (sterile and fertile), and exhibiting 

 the mode of union of the bases of the petals and stamens on the elevated rim (or torus), at the mouth of the calycine tubes. This section is 

 tlirough two of the many cells of the ovary, in which are seen the parietal reticulated funiculi, with the attached ovules. The loAver part of 

 the ovary contains air cavities. The upper part shows the radiated cavity of the top of the germen, with the central column or umbo, and 

 the curious stigmas at the edge of said cavity : — natural size. ' 



Tab. 4. 



Fig. 1. Vertical section (natural size) of a portion of the torus, or elevated run, at the inside of the tube of the calyx and which 

 bears a portion of a calycine segment, and petals which gradually pass into stamens ; mthin, is an inner circle or crown of sterile stamens, 

 united at their base into an arched ring over the stigmas. Fig. 3. Stamen : — slightbj magnified. Fig, 3, Transverse section of an ovary through 

 the centre of the cells : shoiving the position of those cells with relation to the cavity, in which latter is seen the central umbo or column. 

 Fig. 4, Two ovules attached to the funiculus: — much magnified. Fig. 5. Stigma {natural size) showing its stigmatic surface on the back. 

 Fig, 6, Outline sketch of a fruit {natural size), copied from Schomburgk, 



(The colouring of the above is done in part from Su Robert Schomburgk's figures, and in part from description.) 



