AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
N T o. 7.] 
JULY, 1905. 
[VOL. IV. 
NOTES ON THE COLLECTION OF AROIDS 
CULTIVATED IN THE BOTANIC 
GARDENS, SINGAPORE. 
Aroids. 
Cultivation. — Aroids, as cultivated plants, are chiefly known as 
ornamental foliage plants, and as such many are very popular 
among horticulturists. Especially useful as pot plants for the house 
and verandah with their noble foliage, sometimes beautifully varie- 
gated and usually very easy of cultivation, some at least are to be 
found in all gardens of the East. A smaller number belonging to 
the genera Colocasia , Alocasia , Xanthosoma and Amor p hop ha lias, are 
commonly cultivated by natives for their edible tubers or rhizomes 
and two at least Colocasia antiquorum and the aquatic Pistia stra- 
tiotes form a large part of the food of the Chinese pig, for which 
they are largely cultivated. 
The grassy leaved Jeringu or Sweet ITag, Acorus Calamus , a na- 
tive of the North temperate region, which has been widely spread all 
over the world, is cultivated in most villages for its aromatic rhizome 
formerly in great repute as a drug, and still an important article of 
the native Pharmacopoeia. It is cultivated in ditches or damp 
spots, and grows very readily. It seldom produces flower here but 
on one occasion, I found a number of plants producing the thick 
spike of green flowers, from the leaf -like flat stem. 
' Aquatic Aroids. 
These aroids require to be grown entirely in water either in a 
tank where the water from time to time is changed, or in a pool 
or slow-running stream. The following are the chief kinds;— 
Cryptocoryne, small aquatic aroids, with floating leaves (except one 
species) usually found in masses in forest streams. The spathes 
have long tubes, which rise to the surface, and project above it 
