minibus duplo longior, (post fecundationem) rectiusculus cum curvo Leni, 
subtrigono-teres, obsoleté 3-sulcus, super fundum album viridi et rubro varie- 
gatus; stigma areola minuta depressa puberula pallidior in apice obtuso styli: 
germ. superum, virescens, subtrigono-rotundum, 3-loc., loculis 1-spermis: 
ovulum nucleus opacior oblongus gelatina limpidissimé obvolutus. Estivante 
spadice itd se inflectere videntur pistilla ut ope flosculi alient proximi fecun- 
dari queant, flosculo proprio ob nimiam styli longitudinem inhabilia. 
_ This very singular species is said to have been cultivated 
in the days of Miller, in the Physic Garden, Chelsea. The 
plant is known to have been introduced into the gardens of 
Holland more than a century ago; and there is a sample in 
Mr. Brown’s Herbarium that flowered at Kew, where the 
plant had been obtained from Guiana. The specimens ‘in’ 
Holland came from Surinam; and Miller’s probably from 
some Dutch collection. Our drawing was taken from a 
plant that flowered last December in the hothouse of Mr. 
Lee of the Hammersmith Nursery, and had been imported 
from Maranhao, in the Brazils. . gh 
If smelled near, upon the first opening of the spathe, 
vomiting and even fainting sometimes ensue from the 
stench. Linnzeus says, the fetor is so overwhelming “ wé 
olfacientes attonitos redderet et catalepticos.” No sooner 
however have the anthers shed their pollen than the noxious 
odour ceases. / 
The flowers of the spike are crowded together in such 
way that the stamens are pressed close round the style, 
which being from its original conformation at least as long 
again as these, the stigma at its end is necessarily placed 
beyond the influence of the anthers of its own corolla. To 
countervail this seeming defect, the style is bent conna- 
turally in such way as to bring the stigma at its summit 
into the midst of the anthers of an adjoining flower; and 
when these have shed their pollen, that organ is seen to re- 
lax gradually from its flexure to a nearly upright position — 
‘within its proper flower. At least such was the process we 
observed in the uppermost flowers of the spike of the pre- 
sent sample. 
_ The spathe is much smaller and of a far darker colour 
in the earlier stage of its appearance than afterwards. It 
continues to fade to a duller rusty brown until all the 
flowers of the spike are decayed, while the upper portion 
bends gradually downwards until it closes thé whole open 
