334 Transactions. — 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 floccose cottony wool, particularly at base, 

 and bearing a branched loose ■panicle 9 inches long, composed, heloio, of 5 

 symmetrical alternate sub-panicles, the lowermost one having 4 racemes, 

 and each of the upper four 3 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 hract 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 J 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 : jjerianth glahrons, light-green with a dash of yellow, each segment 

 bearing a reddish central stripe on the outside, stellate, ^ 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 : filamejits long, slender, spreading : anthers 

 oblong, obtuse, almost circular after bursting. 



Female plant smaller in all its parts than the male plant ; leaves 2 feet 

 3 inches — 2 feet 6 inches long, f inch broad at the middle, and only 8-10- 

 nerved : 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 dh inches long, the other three small : j^anicle erect, 

 7 inches long, free ; composed beloiv 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 white : 

 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: ova7-y 

 globose, red, succulent (like a small red currant when fully ripe, and of the 

 same colour), very slightly marked from top downwards with three angular 

 furrows: anthers (infertile) very small, oblong, narrow, obtuse, just appearing 

 from under the ovary, and closely embracing it. 



