Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

are bruised with the pestles, arid thrown into these holes
with water. Acetous fermentation commences in seven or
eight days, which is a sign that the acrid poisonous principle
is dissipated : the pulpy, sour, and fibrous mass is then
boiled and eaten ; its nutriment being the starch which
exists in small quantities, and which they have not the skill
to separate by grating and washing. This preparation only
keeps a few days, and produces bowel complaints, and loss
of the skin and hair, especially when insufficiently fermented.
Besides this, the • choklibi ' (Tovaria olevacea, tab. 6313),
and many other esculents, abounded here ; and we had
great need of them before leaving this wild uninhabited
region."
The drawing here published was made from a specimen
sent to me by H. J. Elwes, Esq.,F.L.S., of Preston House,
Cirencester, who himself introduced it from Sikkim; it
flowered at the same time (June 14, 1879) in the Royal
Gardens, from roots presented by Mr. Elwes. The species
is common in the forests of Sikkim, at elevations of 8000
to 12,000 feet, flowering in May and June.
DESCB. Tubers as large as a walnut, or larger. Leaves in
pairs from the roots ; petiole a foot long, and as thick as
the middle finger, cylindric, green ; leaflets three, all very
shortly stoutly petiolulate or sessile, bright green with
yellowish wrinkled margins and purplish nerves which are
very prominent beneath ; middle leaflets broader than long,
five to eight inches in diameter, cuspidate, base cunéate;
lateral leaflets trapezoid-ovate, acute or cuspidate. Peduncle
much shorter than the petiole, as stout, green. Tube of
sjmthe three to four inches long, red-brown with greenish
ribs ; lamina decurved, rarely suberect, much dilated, three to
four inches across, red-brown, diagonally barred with raised
green broad veins, middle portion tumid with parallel ribs,
apex deeply lobed or emarginate, with a cusp in the sinus.
Male spadix; flowering portion columnar, pale purple with
scattered stipitate four-celled anthers ; naked portion (or
appendix) dirty purple, elongate, conical, dilated and lobed
at the base, the apex terminating in a purple filiform tail
eight inches long, which in the young state of the plant is
enclosed in one of the segments of the leaf. Female spadix
with a much stouter conical flowering portion thickly covered
with ovoid ovaries, ending in short thick styles.•J. D. II.
Fig. 1, plant reduced ; 2, male spadix of the natural size.