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ceived the name of Python plants. In A. Rex and other species 

 the leaf stalk is dark green and rough. The blade of the leaf is 

 finely cut up into leaflets, and is often several feet across. Large 

 tubers usually give large leaves and large inflorescence, but even 

 small ones will flower though the spike is smaller; after lasting for 

 some time, the leaf withers and falls. It is then cut off and the tuber 

 is allowed to dry in the pot till another shoot appears in the centre, 

 when it is watered. The tuber usually throws up thus leaf after 

 leaf, but sooner or later instead of the leaf an inflorescence is pro- 

 ducei. Usually, if the leaf withers gradually, it is followed by an- 

 other leaf, if it falls over very suddenly an inflorescence may be ex- 

 pected. This is borne on a short thick stalk and consists of a spathe 

 with a tubular base and a broad spreading limb, from the centre of 

 which rises the flower spike topped by a conic or elongate barren 

 portion often of remarkable form. In A. Prainii, the commonest 

 species in the Peninsula, the spathe is lemon-yellow or ivory-white 

 with the tubular part inside deep-purple, the spadix yellow with a 

 thick yellowish white cone. A. Rex has spathe and spadix of a dark 

 reddish- brown. A. Titanum is an enormous species with a spadix 

 sometimes as much as five feet tall, dark-purple, the spathe being 

 green and purple, while the stem reaches tree-like dimensions. In 

 nearly all the species the inflorescence emits at first a horrible odour 

 of putrid meat which goes off in a few hours. The inflorescence 

 lasts for three or four days and then withers away. 



Anchomanes and Dracontium are plants of the same style as 

 Amorphophallus ; they have never flowered here. Hapaline is a 

 rather insignificant little round-leaved plant with a slender whitish 

 spathe and very small tubers. The species are natives of Indo- 

 Siam. 



The most popular, however, of all the tuberous aroids are the 

 Caladiums. These are natives of South America, but, being spread 

 over the world as cultivated plants, often appear in waste ground 

 and other places as if they were wild ; most of the cultivated forms 

 are hybrids of C. bicolor and C. marmoratum and C. picturatum, 

 besides which there is the small-leaved white and green-leafed 

 plant commonly known as C. argyrites (C. Humboldtii). All the 

 best hybrids are obtained from European nurseries and tubers of 

 the newest and best kinds are expensive, but all can be grown in the 

 Straits with due care and, indeed, both in Penang and Singapore 

 tVre are a few very fine private collections. 



Freshly imported tubers should be inspected for decay or mould 

 which should be thoroughly cleaned off and the tuber dusted with 

 powdered charcoal and regularly inspected until sufficiently sprouted 

 to be potted. It is well, when potting, to fill the pots with a pre- 

 pared compost of well-rotted manure, leaves, a little good loam, 

 some burnt earth and sand ; fill the pot with the compost, make a 

 hole for the tuber which should be filled with sand, or if an unsound 

 tuber charcoal, press moderately firm and keep in a cool shaded 

 place. The soil is usually fairly damp, and it is not necessary to 

 water until a few freshly made roots are seen ; then the plants will 



