MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 529 



surmounted by the cream-coloured, terete, slightly hollow and smooth 

 appendage as long or longer than the spate and about ^ in. diameter 

 at the thickest part, or slightly thicker than the male portion of the 

 inflorescence. 



Female floiuer. — The Ovaries numerous, unilocular, uniovulate (d), sessile, 

 green, almost round, generally turgid in the middle, and gradually enlarged 

 towards the top. Stigma entire, capitate and somewhat bent, of an orange-red 

 colour. The ovule is suspended from an erect funiculus arising from the 

 iiiferior aspect of the cell, and inverting the ovule, so that the micropyle- 

 looks downwards. 



Male flowers have each a single sessile anther, at first round, straw-coloured^ 

 changing to brownish-purple, being marked by faint pink lines, and becoming 

 enlarged and irregularly quadrate in outline : having two ovate chambers 

 (thecse), each opening by a nearly circular pore, and traversed in a direction 

 parallel with the longer axis of the anther by a membrane which divides 

 incompletely the opening into two semi-circular halves. I say incompletely. 

 because it only extends for | or less than g the depth of the anther. The 

 pores are frequently obscured by the emitted pollen. 



The leaf is solitary on a petiole about 2 ft. in length by f in. diameter 

 tapering upwards, solid, rough and variously spotted, springing up from the 

 top of the tuber, about a month or two after the peduncle. The lamina 

 about 2 ft. in expansion, trisect ; each primary division bisect, the segments 

 rarely in well-developed specimens, repeated. The leaflets are, one terminal 

 about 4J by 2 in. ; two decurrent on each side, and two below the bifur- 

 cation, reducing in size downwards. The primary nerves run obliquely to a 

 prominent intramarginal vein about ^ in. from the entire edge. 



The description of the inflorescence and leaf is here given in the order in 

 which they appear above ground, just in the same way as it is applied to some 

 Aroidece by Sir Joseph Hooker and others " Tuberous plants before leafing." 

 Some botanists believe that Sheula is perennial, but this is not the case. On 

 close examination it will be found that the young leaf, its petiole and the 

 rudiment of the future tuber spring up at the end of June or during the 

 month of July from the top of the tuber, and as they continue to grow (the 

 leafs dying after the end of the rains) in October or November, the old tuber, 

 on which they are fed, shrivels up and ultimately disappears : you can see this 

 process in the plant before you which sprang in July last. Here the old 

 tuber is still attached to the new one, which has now reached to the size of 

 a small betelnut, and continues to grow. At the end of eleven months, 

 i.e., in May or beginning of the rains, it sends up its inflorescence on 

 a stalk. 



Dr. Kirtikar states that Amorplwphallus campanulatus in its development 

 follows the same process ; in the description of Tompsonia Nipalensis, Engler 

 id) lu a.great number of ovaries examined I liave found 1 cell and 1 onile only. 



