N. O. ATIOTDE*. 
1337 
aro membranaceous wings along the sides of the decurrent 
bases of the segments. Segments lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 
parallel-veined, pale green, entirely glabrous ; margins entire. 
Scape solitary, 2-4in. long, cylindric, greenish, mottled with 
white spots, very thickly verrucose, invested below with 2 or 3 
imbricated scales or bracts, linear-lanceolate, tough, fleshy, 
rose-coloured, mottled with green or purple spots. Spathe 
large, leathery, marescent,® large ovate, 1-1 4 ft. long, very broad, 
erect; below, of fleshy substance, infuudibuliform, convolute ; 
above membranous, broadly campanulate, patulous, with 
undulate curled margins. The convoluted part, in its greatest 
circumference, is about 1 J ft. ; externally, speckled with bright 
green dots and pale yellowish-greenish dots ; internally, purple 
at base, with very thick fleshy warts thickest and deepest- 
coloured near the scape, paler and less dense as they approach 
the mid-part of the infundibular portion ; the mid-part is cons- 
picuously greenish-yellowish, without any warts. Spadix 
projecting distinctly beyond the spathe, erect, thick, club-shaped, 
almost half-way from below cylindrical and pistil -bearing, 
thence upward it is pear-shaped and thick, bearing anthers ; 
above this part lies the apical appendage or club, expanding 
into a globosely conoid, irregularly formed mass when young, 
which becomes fungating and sinuously lobed as it matures. 
The texture internally is spongy, fibrous, lacunose, externally 
corrugated, brownish-purple, resembling soft leather, with 
minute warts or projectious alternating in regular order with 
shallow depressions between. As the conoidal apex matures 
into the more corrugated mass of sinuous small lobules, they 
emit an intolerable offensive odour of putrid flesh, inviting 
hordes of blue-bottles and other large flies which cover 
the whole mass with their eggs ; and the subsequent maggots 
which thickly beset it for next four or five days, render the 
flowerstalk as disgusting to the eye and nose as carrion. 
Flowers unisexual, the males on the middle third of the spadix 
immediately below the appendage ; the females on the lower 
* That ts, not actually (ailing off before the spadix is perfected, but wither- 
ing long before that time. 
188 
