N. O. AROIDEiE. 1337 



are membranaceous wings along the sides of the decurrent 

 bases of the segments. Segments lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 parallel-veined, pale green, entirely glabrous ; margins entire. 

 Scape solitary, 2-4in. long, cylindric, greenish, mottled with 

 white spots, very thickly verrucose, invested below with 2 or 3 

 imbricated scales or bracts, linear-lanceolate, tough, fleshy, 

 rose-coloured, mottled with green or purple spots. Spathe 

 large, leathery, marescent,* large ovate, l-l^ft. long, very broad, 

 erect; below, of fleshy substance, infundibuliform, convolute ; 

 above membranous, broadly campanulate, patulous, with 

 undulate curled margins. The convoluted part, in its greatest 

 circumference, is about ljft. ; externally, speckled with bright 

 green dots and pale yellowish-greenish dots ; internally, purple 

 at base, with very thick fleshy warts thickest and deepest- 

 coloured near the scape, paler and less dense as they approach 

 the mid-part of the infundibular portion ; the mid-part is cons- 

 picuously greenish-yellowish, without any warts. Spadix 

 projecting distinctly beyond the spathe, erect, thick, club-shaped, 

 almost half-way from below cylindrical and pistil -bearing, 

 thence upward it is pear-shaped and thick, bearing anthers ; 

 above this part lies the apical appendage or club, expanding 

 into a globosely conoid, irregularly formed mass when young, 

 which becomes fungating and sinuously lobed as it matures. 

 The texture internally is spongy, fibrous, lacunose, externally 

 corrugated, brownish-purple, resembling soft leather, with 

 minute warts or projections alternating in regular order with 

 shallow depressions between. As the conoidal apex matures 

 into the more corrugated mass of sinuous small lobules, they 

 emit an intolerable offensive odour of putrid flesh, inviting 

 hordes of blue-bottles and other large flies which cover 

 the whole mass with their eggs ; and the subsequent maggots 

 which thickly beset it for next four or five days, render the 

 flowerstalk as disgusting to the eye and nose as carrion. 

 Flowers unisexual, the males on the middle third of the spadix 

 immediately below the appendage ; the females on the lower 



*That is, not actually falling off before the spadix is perfected, but wither- 

 ing long before that time. 

 168 



