b/m 
257 
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. arge 
tubers usually give large leaves and large inflorescence, but even 
small ones will flower though the spike is smaller; after lasting tor 
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 alter 
leaf, but sooner or later instead of the leaf an . inflorescence is pro- 
duce!. 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 o 
which rises the flower spike topped by a conic or elongate barren 
portion often of remarkable form. In A. Prainn , 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 nev£r flowered here. Hapahne 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. b 'xolor and C. marrnoratuni and C . picturatum , 
besides which there is the small-leaved white and green-leafed 
plant commonly known as C. argy rites ( C . Humboldtii). All the 
best hybrids are obtained from European nurseries and tubers of 
the newestand best kinds are expensive, but all can be grown in the 
Straits with due care and, indeed, both in Penang and Singapore 
t'lere 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 ancU 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 
