212 
BROWN. 
All parts of the flower are very thick, fleshy and brittle. The 
flower has a distinctly putrid odor which is, however, not very 
strong. 
The anthers (fig. 4) are suspended in a circular arrangement 
from the lower surface of the disk at the summit of the central 
column and are partitioned off from each other by plates of tissue. 
In the material examined there were from 12 to 14 anthers. Ac- 
cording to Teschemacher there are 10. The anthers are round 
and open by an apical pore which connects with a number of 
cavities running through the anther longitudinally. The pollen, 
when discharged, is suspended in a liquid. This liquid, contain- 
ing the pollen, hangs as a yellow drop from the lower end of 
the anther mass. Corresponding to each anther there is in the 
central column a deep groove which runs down into the basal 
disk. In the female flower these grooves are developed to a much 
less extent or may be entirely wanting. Without an examination 
of the lower surface of the disk at the top of the column, which 
necessitates the mutilation of the flower, the relative develop- 
ment of the grooves in the column and basal disk is the only 
superficial character by which the male and female flowers can 
be distinguished. The only parts of these grooves, which are 
visible in an entire flower, are the lower ends in the basal disk. 
The stigmatic surfaces of the female flower correspond in posi- 
tion to the anthers of the male (fig. 3). The ovarial cavity con- 
sists of labarynthine passages occupying a disk-shaped region 
below the central column (fig. 3) . In the male flower this region 
is occupied by parenchymatous tissue (fig. 4). The ovules are 
small and exceedingly numerous. 
Although both the condition of the pollen and the odor of the 
flower suggest that pollination is performed by insects, no fly- 
ing insects have been seen around the plants. Old flowers are, 
however, always infested with insect larvae, prominent among 
which are those of a species of Coleoptera. A large number of 
anthers were examined but in no case did the pollen appear to 
have been disturbed. Moreover no seed or developing embryos 
have been discovered. This is probably due to a scarcity of the 
pollinating insect as both the pollen and embryo-sacs appear to be 
perfectly normal. 
The ovule is anatropus and has one integument. The arche- 
sporium differentiates in the apex of the nucellus as a single 
hypodermal cell surrounded by a single epidermal layer. The 
archesporial cell without further division functions as a mega- 
spore mother cell, its nucleus undergoing the usual heterotypic 
