78 Cijamus lateus. 



Root perennial. Leaves orbicular and centrally peltate, from 

 twelve to eighteen or twenty inches in diameter, entire, deep duck- 

 green above, apple-green beneath, and conspicuously marked by ra- 

 diating nerves. Petioles from three to live feet in length, cylindrical, 

 muricate with short, black, rigid projections. Flowers very large, glo- 

 bose, until fully expanded, when the petals separate, and the corolla 

 measures from six to eight inches in diameter. Petals ovate, pale 

 straw-yellow, streaked longitudinally with whitish nerves or lines. 

 The exterior petals often marked with a few irregular, reddish-brown 

 blotches. Calix consisting generally of five leaves resembling the 

 petals, excepting that they are of a less delicate texture and colour, 

 the exterior small and discoloured by reddish spots. Scape cylindri- 

 cal, of a yellowish-green colour, muricated in the same manner as 

 the petioles. Stigma orange-yellow, an inverted cone, the upper sur- 

 face showing the apices of the immature fruit, peeping from the 

 spongy germ. Stamens very numerous, surrounding and embracing 

 the germ, also orange-yellow. Anthers of the same colour, sub-acute, 

 becoming afterwards as the flower grows old, obtuse, by the inversion 

 of the apex, as in Fig. 6. Capsule very large, often four inches in 

 diameter, of a dull greenish colour, consisting of a spongy inverted 

 cone, having imbedded in it from seventeen to twenty ovate seeds, of 

 a yellow colour, varying in size, and crowned by the persistent style. 

 The figure represents them of the largest size, several being in each 

 capsule half as large. They are esculent in the green state, and are 

 collected eagerly by boys who eat and sell them under the name of 



