240 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
ing 18 inches), with bright green leaves upon 
short stems, and covered with oblong whitish 
blotches. The creamy or greenish-white flow- 
ers coming towards the end of summer, are 
smaller and less open than in the White Arum, 
with a blotch of deep reddish-purple at the base ; 
though very freely produced, they are poor 
in colour, and apt to come deformed as a 
green and white blend of flower and leaf. 
Though sometimes grown for the sake of its 
fine leaves and ease of growth in almost any 
spot, as a flowering plant its value is small ; 
and, indeed, the spathes are often cut with- 
out opening where rich foliage is sought. 
In mild districts its roots pass the winter in 
the open, with only a covering from frost ; 
it may also be grown as an aquatic. Plants 
raised from seeds are the best for efi^ect. A 
distinct variety known as sulphurea is better 
in colour than the parent, the dingy white 
being replaced by a spathe of soft sulphur 
yellow, contrasted with deep black at the 
base. 
R. aurata. — A supposed cross raised by 
Messrs. Deleuil of Hyeres between Rs. hastata 
and alho-maculata^ but better classed as a form 
of the first named. It is a robust plant of free 
growth, thriving in the open from June to 
September, and of fine appearance with its 
bold leaves marked with transparent white dots 
like those of albo-maculata^ but smaller and less 
numerous. Though akin to Elliott's Golden 
Arum in habit and form of spathe, they are 
smaller and of a soft ochreous yellow colour, 
with a blackish-purple blotch at the base, and 
do not compare with that kind in depth of 
colour ; none the less, their size and good 
habit, and the easy culture of the plant, give 
it a distinct value in gardens, and it has been 
much used in crossing. Messrs. Deleuil 
offer, under the name of K. sagittifolia, what 
is another form of aurata, identical in flowers, 
but not spotted upon the leaf. 
R. cantabrigiensis. — A new cross between Rs. 
Rehmanni 2.n6. melanoleuca^r^htdL by Mr. Lynch 
of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, where it 
has recently flowered. Its great merit lies in 
the fact that the rosy-purple colour of the 
wild form of R. Rehmanni (which disappears 
under our northern skies) is here regained in 
part, as a delicate pink flush suffuses spathes 
of ivory whiteness ; this pretty flushing, 
deeper upon the outside than within, being 
produced under conditions which fail to 
develop the faintest colour in its parent. 
The new plant is, therefore, of value as an 
advance towards the Rosy Arum. In leaf 
and habit its character is intermediate ; the 
leaf-stalks show the ruddy tinge of R. melano- 
leuca without its hairiness of stem, and the 
flowers resemble this kind in size, and in the 
fine dark blotch or "eye" at the base, which is 
wanting in the spathes of R. Rehmanni. 
R. Eliiottiana. — The first of the Yellow 
Arums, raised from seed imported from South 
Africa in 1886, and flowered in the gardens of 
Captain Elliott of Farnborough Park, Hants, 
three years later. As a golden counterpart of 
the White Arum, its appearance created such a 
sensation that the earliest plants reached a high 
value, and it is still a scarce plant in gardens. It 
differs from R. Pentlandii in its spathes of uni- 
form golden or orange yellow, with no dark 
I blotch at the base of the tube, and no smell ; the 
leaves also are thinner in texture, and covered 
upon blade and stem with whitish trans- 
parent blotches. The plant is beautiful and 
1 vigorous, flowering freely during summer, 
! the spathes lasting long in beauty, and fading 
gradually to greenish-yellow with the forma- 
tion of seed. This is freely produced and 
the best means of increase, though the plant 
may also be grown from offsets, which bloom 
during their second season. Like Pentlandii., 
it succeeds in a warmer temperature than the 
common Arum, but when at rest may be 
stored in comparatively cool quarters, coming 
as it does from an inland but elevated part 
of South Africa, where a hot summer is 
followed by a season of cold. The root- 
tubers are flat and fleshy, reaching consider- 
able size in old plants, and drying when at 
rest. After re-potting in spring, they are 
best in a cool house at the outset, until the 
roots have gained hold ; but when placed in 
heat they grow very quickly (more so than 
Pentlandii'), flowering in three months or 
even less. The plants need careful tending 
until the seed matures — towards the end of 
summer — and should then be ripened off and 
I stored away in their pots for the winter. The 
seed germinates quickly, and should be thinly 
