314 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Aug.-Sept.; 1913. 
sessile slightly three-lobed stigma. Within the 
numerous orthotropous ovules arranged 
on three parietal placentas. Neither the staminate 
nor pistillate flowers have any perianth. 
In the Kachu plant, as in other Arums, the flowers are 
protogynous, a condition in which the stigmas ripen first. To 
adapt this condition to the employment of insect agency for the 
purposes of cross-pollination the infloresence of the Colocasia 
passes through three stages. In the first: stage the lower dark 
lower part of the spathe gradually closes, and by the evening 
the flies are completely imprisoned in the spathe. The spathe 
is erect, and the narrow portion is not sufficiently constricted 
to prevent the flies passing into the upper portion. On the 
following morning the upper part of the spathe will be found 
to have partly opened, but the lower part remains tightly 
closed. This is the second stage; the staminate flowers are 
mature, and the anthers have commenced to shed their pollen, 
