Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

Aris•ma are put by the natives of the Himalaya in times of
scarcity as articles of food. The plate here given is from
a specimen flowered by H. N. Elwes, Esq., who introduced
this and many other species, aided by a drawing made in
its native country by an artist employed by the late Judge
Cathcart, and preserved in the Kew collection of drawings.
In this drawing the bases of the peduncle and petioles
are subtended by two oblong membranous sheaths, three
and five inches long respectively, which are white and
obscurely mottled or banded with dull grey. It flowered
at Preston House in May, 1879.
DESCE. Dioecious. Tuber the size of the fist. Leaves
two ; petiole five to eight inches long, thicker than the
thumb, green ; leaflets three, eight to ten inches long and
broad, from trapezoid-ovate to orbicular, acuminate or
apiculate, subsessile, dark green with deeply-sunk reticulate
veins which are very prominent beneath, margins slightly
undulate yellow or red. Peduncle shorter and hardly so
stout as the petiole, green. Spathe very large, tubular
portion four to six inches long, cylindric, expanding above
into a convex crown, which again dilates into the lamina,
deeply grooved, grooves dull purple, the ridges broad and
white ; lamina of spathe six to ten inches broad, deflexed,
spreading out into broad lateral wings which are almost
convolute, deeply cleft in front ; whole surface of a brown-
purple colour netted with prominent-green veins. Spadix
with the flowering portion very short, about one inch long,
cylmdi-ic-conic, suddenly contracted into a short naked
column supporting the dark brown-purple polished appen-
dix which expands at the base into a lobed thick circular
disk, then contracts into a fusiform body which terminates
m a very slender tortuous thread a foot long; this thread
is in a young state folded in one of the three leaflets of the
leaf. Anthers scattered, stipitate, pale yellow. Ova ries very
dense, subglobose, contracted into a short style with a
truncate stigma. Ovules about six, pendulous from the top
of the cell.•J. D.H.
Fig. 1, male spadix, of the natural size; 2, anther after dehiscence, enlarged.