Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

in a note in Saunders' Refugium (vol. iv. tab. 282),
suggests that it is only D. asp&rwm, and that the locality
of Sierra Leone is an error.
I am indebted to Mr. Bull, F.L.S., for the means
of figuring this interesting plant, and take the present
opportunity of recording my sense of the signal service
which this ardent horticulturist has rendered to botanical
science, by the introduction and cultivation of so many fine
plants of this family ; plants which cannot be satisfactorily
investigated except in a living state, and which, from their
brief duration, lurid colours, and often foetid odour, offer
no attraction to the lovers of other than rare and curious
plants. D. Garderi was discovered by the traveller whose
name it bears, and was imported by Mr. Bull, who flowered
it at his establishment in Chelsea in April, 1879.
DESCR. Petiole two to three feet high, slender, terete,
mottled with bands of dirty green ; lamina two feet in
diameter, three-sect to the base ; divisions horizontal and
drooping at the ends, undivided or forked at or below the
middle, pinnatisect below the middle, pinnatifid beyond it ;
pinnules or lobes very unequal, the lower contracted or not
at the base, oblong or obovate, acute or acuminate, some
two to three inches long and undivided, others six to eight
inches and lobed or split, or perforated, all pale green,
membranous, with many arching nerves. Peduncle twice
as long as the petiole, as slender and similarly coloured.
Spathe a foot long, lanceolate, acuminate, dirty green
outside with reddish brown raised nerves, dark purple
inside. Spadix one and a half inch long, on a very short
stout stipes, cylindric, obtuse, violet blue ; flowers (unex-
panded) about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter ;
perianth-segments five, spathulate, with incurved cucullate
tips ; stamens about eight; ovary three-celled, contracted
into a stout columnar style with a very small three-lobed
terminal stigma.•J. D. H.
Fig. 1, Whole plant, greatly reduced; 2, spadix, of the natural size; 3, unex-
panded flower; 4 and 5, perianth-segments ; 6, anthers (immature); 7, section of
ovary ; 8, ovule :•all enlarged.