MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 531 



I shall be able to show him P. wallichianum and S. giittatum side by side. 

 It will there be found that the leaf of the latter is markedly bolder, thicker 

 and more prominently coarse-veined than that of the former. Note that, 

 the Shewla leaf varies according to the size of the bulb. When the bulb is- 

 as small as a pea, the leaf is cordate or hastate, not unlike that of a small 

 Caladium. When the bulb is of the size of a cherry, the leaf is trilobate 

 like that of Arum trilohafum. "When the bulb is of the size of a husked betel- 

 nut, the leaf is pedate ; when a little larger, the leaf is pedati-partite. The 

 leaf in my plate is from a small-sized bulb ; it is of medium size, and resembles 

 roughly the full formed leaf of S. guttatum. Here lies the source of con- 

 fusion. As described by me, the full-sized leaf is tripartite-decompound. For 

 such a leaf to be thrown out the bulb has to be of the size of a large apple or 

 orange, if not larger. My leaf, therefore, should not be compared with that, 

 of Wallich's, which latter is from a bulb four times as large as that shown in, 

 my plate. The fact that figures given in Wallich's plate and mine are com- 

 pared regardless of the size of our respective bulbs, sufficiently speaks for 

 itself. Wallich's bulb is more fully developed than mine, hence his leaf is ful- 

 ly tripartite-decompound, whereas my leaf is of medium size. Note therefore 

 again, as observed already, that the leaf in this Aroicl varies according t©- 

 the size of the bulb. En passant I may observe that in the foregoing note-, 

 it is said that " the inflorescence appears at the end of May or soon after 

 the rains, when the smell is disagreeable." I beg leave to say that it is not 

 when the infloresGence appears, hut when the pollen is ready to discharge, or 

 actually discharges itself, that the characteristic carrion-odour prevails^ 

 There is an interval of four to six days between the appearance of the 

 inflorescence and the maturation and discharge of pollen, I may usefully 

 observe here that the Shewla plant is not mentioned in Dr. Lisboa's " Useful 

 Plants of the Bombay Presidency," published in 1886. In addition to Dr. 

 Dymock, whom I have followed in naming the Shewla plant as Pythonium 

 wallichianum, Kunth, I am aware that the lat» Drs. Narayan Daji^ 

 Sakharam Arjun and Vinayak G. Gidh, who were earnest workers in Indian 

 Botany, had accepted the name I have adopted. 



Having so far justified the scientific name I have adopted, I now turn to> 

 the consideration of the propriety of suggesting the name of Amorjphophallus 

 commufatus to the Shewla plant. To include this plant under the Genus. 

 Amorphophallus is not sanctioned scientifically, judging from its structural 

 nature. Hooker's recent researches are my authority (Flora Br. Ind., vol. vi.,, 

 p. 491, 1894). Hooker says that in the Genus Amorphophallus, there are?i(> 

 " neuters^ I am prepared to show that in the Shewla plant there are 

 " neuters^' Therefore the Shewla plant cannot be classified as a species of 

 4he Genus Amorphophallus'''^' 



K. K. KIRTIKAR, p.l.s. 



* Engler includes A. commutatus among tfae " entirely douUffl species." <.P. 318, Monogr. 

 Phan. Prod., vol. ii, D.C.) 



