CALADIUM SEGUINUM.

Dumb Cane.

MONECIA POLYANDRIA.-NAT. ORD. AROIDEÆ.

GEN. CHAR.-MASC. Cal. 0. Cor. o. Antheræ peltatæ, multiloculares, in spicam ad apicem spadicis compositæ.

FŒM. Cal. 0. Cor. 0. Germina ad basin spadicis inserta. Stylus 0. Bacca uni- (bi-) locularis, polysperma.-Willd.

Caladium Seguinum; caulescens suberectum, foliis oblongo-ovatis cuspidatis, spadice spatha oblonga breviore.

C. Seguinum, WILLD. Sp. Pl. v. iv. p. 490.-AITON, Hort. Kew. ed. 2. v. 5. p. 312.

Arum Seguinum, LINN. Sp. Pl. p. 1371.

Stem from 3 to 5, and even 6 feet in height, and sometimes as thick as a man's wrist; it is generally a little procumbent at the base, then erect, naked, jointed, green, often discoloured with the dried sheathing bases of the former years' leaves, smooth, succulent, filled with a green, highly acrid juice. Leaves all springing from the summit of the stem, 8 or 10 inches in length, ovato-oblong, cuspidate, undulated, having a thick midrib, and lateral parallel veins, their substance marked with pellucid white spots, often perforated; they are horizontal or deflexed, deep green, subcoriaceous, petiolated, petioles about half as long as the leaves, channelled, sheathing, sheaths terminated in a short green ligule, as in the grasses. From the sheathing bases of these petioles, arise the spathas, which are 5 or 6 inches in length, oblong, pedunculated, pale green, convoluted, rather shorter than the spadix, which is cylindrical, but attached for the greater part of its length to the spatha.

Stamens covering the upper and free part of the spadix all around, peltate, hexangular, their sides bearing several oblong, pendent, 2-celled Anthers, filled with a white pollen. The centre of the spadix is naked, or only bears a few abortive stamens. The lower part, on the side not attached to the spatha, is covered with numerous greenish, nearly spherical, 2-celled pistils, mostly ternate, in transverse rows, and furnished at the base with 2 or 4 white, clavate bodies, which I suspect to be abortive Anthers. Ovules, several in each cell. Stigmas sessile, large, yellow, lobed and wrinkled, viscid. The more advanced state of the fructification I have not seen, as the plant does not bear fruit with us.

This is a fine, handsome, palm-like plant, rising with a long, jointed stem, and having a cluster of leaves at the extremity. It is a native of the West Indian Islands, and of the warmer parts of South America. We are assured by BROWN, in his Natural History of Jamaica, that the stalk is employed to bring sugar to a good grain, when the juice is too viscid, and cannot be made to granulate properly by the application of lime alone.

The acrid nature of the Aroidea, in general, is well known. In that quality, perhaps, the present individual yields to no other. SLOANE describes the species as "labris degustantes mutos reddens." Hence the term of Dumb Cane, an appellation fully justified by a recent instance which I have heard of in this climate. When Mr MACNAB, the excellent Superintendant of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, was at Kew, a box of these plants arrived there from Cayenne. One of the men employed to remove the individuals to the stove, incautiously bit a piece of one of them, when his tongue swelled to such a degree that he could not move it; he became utterly incapable of speaking, and was confined to the house for some days, in the most excruciating torments. The slightest application to the tongue of the juice from the spadix, gives great pain, as I have myself experienced. It is said to impart an indelible stain to linen.

The drawing was made from a fine plant which flowered in the Royal Botanic Garden, Glasgow, in the middle of winter.

A, Plant about 12th of the natural size. Fig. 1. Spatha, nat. size.

Fig. 2. The same cut open, to shew the Spadix. Fig. 3. Single Stamen. Fig. 4. Two of the Cells of the Anther cut open transversely. Fig. 5. Two of the Cells entire. Fig. 6. Three Pistils, with the accompanying clavate bodies. Fig. 7. Germen, cut through transversely.-All from Fig. 3. are more or less magnified.