834 Fransactions.— Botany, 
each side of the mid-rib, mid-rib keeled, ciliated at edges and on mid-rib 
below with longish white hairs, 12-nerved longitudinally, nerves white 
clear and parallel : scape, sub-flexuous, pendulous, 16 inches long, ob- 
tusely trigonous, very stout, thickest and more angular at top, shaggy 
throughout with dense white floceose cottony wool, particularly at base, 
and bearing a branched loose panicle 9 inches long, composed, below, of 5 
symmetrical alternate sub-panicles, the lowermost one having 4 racemes, 
and each of the upper four 8 racemes, 6-2 inches long springing from one 
base or short peduncle, the middle raceme of each sub-panicle always the 
longest, and each of the five with a single leafy sessile bract at its base, the 
lowermost bract being 2 feet long and 8 lines wide at the base, rather sud- 
denly widening at 3 inches from base to 1} inch, and 10-nerved; the next 
bract 14 inches long, and both lanceolate and very acumimate from the 
widest part, light-green and glabrous above; the remaining three bracts 
small ; above, the panicle is composed of five single alternate bractless 
racemes ; racemes, smaller bracts, peduncles, pedicels and bracteoles densely 
clothed with silky hairs: flowers numerous, free, scattered on long pedicels; 
pedicels 3 lines long and bracteolate ; bracteoles linear, as long as pedicels, 
reddish : perianth glabrous, light-green with a dash of yellow, each segment 
bearing a reddish central stripe on the outside, stellate, 4 inch diameter ; 
segments free to base, nearly equal, sub-recurved; sepals larger, ovate- 
lanceolate, sub-acuminate, with a slight protuberance a little way in from 
the tip ; petals narrower obtuse : Jilaments long, slender, spreading: anthers 
oblong, obtuse, almost circular after bursting, 
Femae puant smaller in all its parts than the male plant; leaves 2 feet 
8 inches—2 feet 6 inches long, 3 inch broad at the middle, and only 8-10- 
a: scape as in the male, but straight and shorter, 8-9 inches long: 
bracts as in the male, but smaller ; the lowermost 14-17 inches long, and 
6-nerved ; the next one 8} inches long, the other three small : panicle erect, 
7 inches long, free ; composed below of three alternate subpanicles, each con- 
taining three racemes of flowers springing from one base or peduncle; and 
above, of five single racemes, the upper two being without bracts : flowers as 
in male, but smaller, with shorter pedicels and bracteoles, which are while : 
perianth greenish-yellow, scented, densely clothed on the outside with silky 
hairs : segments spreading, not recurved, and broader than those of the male 
plant: style short, stout : stigma sessile, trifid, very obtuse, smooth: ova7y 
globose, red, succulent (like a small red currant when fully ripe, and of = 
same colour), very slightly marked from top downwards with three angular , 
furrows: anthers (infertile) very small, oblong, narrow, obtuse, just appearing 
