256 
ending in a more or less tailed purple or yellow limb. They are 
chiefly botanically interesting from the curious valve at the bottom 
of the tube above the flower spike which allows of the entrance of 
minute flies which fertilize the flowers, but prevents the entrance of 
water. Several species occur in the forests of the Peninsula. C. cili- 
aris differs in its erect fleshy leaves, and is a tidal mud plant very 
common in the muddy streams and rivers near the sea. Although 
it almost invariably grows in salt mud in a wild state, it grows well 
in fresh water in the gardens. These plants not only can be raised 
from seed, but also produce long suckers by which they can be 
reproduced. 
Lagenandra is a plant of similar habit from Ceylon. 
Pistia stratiotesy the water lettuce “ Kambiang or Kiambang ” of % 
the Malays, is a curious floating plant with bright green leaves, in 
a rosette, largely cultivated by the Chinese in ponds for feeding 
pigs. It propagates itself rapidly by means of suckers, and is a 
popular plant in many places for aquariums. 
Lasia spinosa , Cyrtospenna lasioides and Aglaonema Griffithii 
are also aroids which require to be grown in water. All are natives 
of the Peninsula. The first two have thorny stems and petioles. 
Lasia has finely-cut leaves and a curious long purple spathe, 
Cyrtosperma has large heart-shaped leaves. They are propagated 
easily from seed or cuttings of the stems. 
Tuberous Aroids. 
To this group belong Arisaema, Typhonium , Amorphophallus , 
Hapaline , Caladium , Anchomanes and Dracontium. The stems 
are reduced to subterranean tubers which, during growth, throw off 
laterally other small tubers from which they can be propagated. 
The plants are grown in pots or tubs, and the tubers when planted 
soon throw up a shoot from the centre, which develops into leaves 
and flower spikes sometimes simultaneously. In other cases, the 
leaves appear first, one by one in AmorphophalluSy and then the 
leaf falls and the inflorescence is produced. There are several kinds f 
of Arisaema to be found in the hill districts of the Peninsula They 
are commonly known as Cobra flowers, from the hooded spathe 
! suggesting the hood of a cobra. The most popular is Arisaema 
fimbriatum from the Lankawi Islands with large trifoliate leaves 
and a purplostriped spathe, with a long purple-plumed spadix. 
The Typhoniunts are garden weeds with entire or lobed leaves 
and large or small purple or yellow spathes. 
The A morphophalli are worth cultivating not only for their strik- 
ing foliage, but also from their extraordinary inflorescence. The 
tubers are often of immense size, those of A. Prainii and A. Rex 
being often a foot through and that of A. Titanum very much larger. 
Each tuber, which is rounded with a depression on the top, throws 
up a single leaf, which in large plants attains a height of 6 feet or 
more. The leaf stalk in A. Prainii and some others is mottled with 
white dark and light green and grey, and is often 2 or 3 inches thick 
and quite succulent; from its mottled coloring, these plants have re- 
