50 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



shrunken flower-stalk. All this may happen aboveground, should the 

 tubers be preserved in a store-room ; or if they be underground, the 

 flower-stalk makes its appearance aboveground and goes through the 

 same process of development. At the beginning of the rains the 

 tubers have to be put into the ground. The softer the ground the 

 better is the chance of obtaining a big uniformly well-developed tuber 

 at the end of the rains. With the rains the plant grows quickly, 

 waving its tripartite solitary leaf three or four feet above ground. The 

 chief nourishment of the leaf is the starchy matter of the old tuber ; 

 as this is absorbed by the petiole and carried upward into the farthest 

 ramifications of the leaflet, the old tuber vanishes. The leaf when 

 mature begins about the middle of the rains to replace its old used-up 

 tuber by the gradual formation of a new one. This new tuber is ready 

 about the end of the rains, or the beginning of the cold weather. That 

 this new tuber is a totally different individual from the old one is 

 proved by the fact that where, by some error in the proper performance 

 of the function of the leaf, vis., that of using up the old starch and 

 reforming a fresh quantity, the leafy expansion does not use up the 

 whole tuber of the previous year, the new tuber that is formed can be 

 seen as quite a separate individual superimposed on the old half-used-up 

 tuber in the same way as we find corms placed one upon the other — 

 the new above the old — in the natural order Iridacece. As soon as the 

 growth of the tuber is completed, or rather as soon as the power of 

 starch-formation in the leafy expansion is exhausted and the process 

 is at an end, the leaf and petiole begin to turn yellow shortly after the 

 rains, shrivel and dry up, and ultimately get bodily detached from the 

 new tuber, leaving a scar in the form of a depression or prominence, 

 from the central part of which the flower-stalk of the future plant 

 springs forth. Such is the life-history of this interesting plant. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES. 



The cultivated variety of Suran has for a long time been used by 

 the natives of this country for culinary purposes, although it is not 

 free from acridity even after boiling. The acrid principles are to a 

 very large extent got rid of by soaking in water the cut pieces of the 

 tuber intended for culinary use. Even then the tuber does not cease 

 to be irritating to the mucous membrane of the mouth, throat, and 



