43- A Note on the Floral Mechanism of Typhoniu 



trilohatuni. 



By Maude L. Cleghorn, F.L.S., F.E.S. 

 Communicated by the Hon. Mr. W. A. Lee, F.R.M.S. 



(With Plate XXXII.) 



Typhonium trilobatum, Schott, the Ghet-Kachu, is a tuber- 

 ous rooted plant found growing among grass in thickets in 

 most parts of tropical India. It is easily recognized, when 

 in flower during the hot weather and early rains, by its broad 

 dark reddish purple spathe about nine inches in height, and 

 the carnon-hke odour given off at dusk. It has three or four 

 rather large 3-lobed leaves, with long petioles, which raise the 

 Jeal blades well above the grass among which it usually grows. 



The erect spathe, which partly encloses the spadix, "stands 

 close to the ground with its base half buried in the soil. It 

 varies much in size. In small plants it is sometimes only three 

 mches high, while in a large specimen it may attain a height of 

 about twelve inches. The upper part of the spathe unfurls 

 completely into the broad reddish purple limb of the spathe, 

 which tapers otf into a fairly long slender tip. The margins of 

 the spathe in the lower portion, below the constriction, do not 

 unroll, but remain overlapping, to form a short barrel-shaped 

 cavity (the tube of the spathe) opening above at the constric- 

 tion (Fig. 1). 



The erect spadix, which is shorter than the spathe, has the 

 lower part enclosed in the tube. The upper exposed part, 

 which stands out of the spathe above the constriction, consists 

 of (a) the long smooth reddish purple appendage which forms 

 the greater part of the exposed portion of the spadix, and which 

 tapers to a blunt point, and (6) a pale reddish purple cylin- 

 drical portion, about a quarter of the appendage in length, 

 bearing numerous closely packed minute staminate flowers. 

 At the constriction, and a little below it, enclosed within the 

 tube, the spadix is very slender and quite bare; this slender 

 portion is about equal in length to that of the staminate por- 

 tion and so allows of a clear passage into the lower part of the 

 cavity of the tube, where the pistillate flowers are situated. 

 Low down in the tube, near the base, the spadix bears, (c) a 

 tangled mass of long thread-like bodies (rudimentary neuter 

 flowers), which partly hang over (d) the green pistillate flowers 

 situated at the bottom of the tube The pistillate flowers are 

 a little larger than the staminate ones. They are considerably 



