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to Bhutan. The Khasia Hills, Manipore ; the Western Ghats, from the Konkan to Malabar.

Tuberous herbs. Tubers spheroidal, attaining 5in. diam. Petiole l-3ft., green or with the sheaths mottled with purple. Leaves 2-3. Leaflets 8-18in., distant or crowded or almost radiately disposed, sessile or petiolulate ovate-or linear-lanceolate, subcaudately acuminate. Peduncle 2-4ft. Spathe 4-6in., pale-green or purplish, tube subcylindric, tapering, gradually dilating into the limb. The limb incurved broadly cymbiform, acuminate. Spadix uni-or bisexual ; appendage like a rat's tail quite smooth, narrowed from the base to the tip erect. Ovary ovoid, attenuated into a short style. Berry 4-5-seeded. A very variable plant.

Collett describes the following two species separately as included by Hooker under A. tortuosum. Schott—as growing at Simla — (1) A. curvatum, Kunth : — Male and female flowers on different or on the same plants. Anthers blue or purple. (2) A. helleborifolium. Schott — Male and female flowers on the same plant, but in very unequal numbers. Anthers white or yellow.

Uses : — It is stated to have poisonous qualities. In Kûlû, the seeds are said to be given with salt for colic in sheep. The root is used to kill the worms which infest cattle in the rains. (Stewart.)

Vern. :— -Wal-kidâran ( Singh).

Habitat : — Western Ghats, from the Konkan southward. Ceylon.

Monœcious or diœcious. Tuber large, globose 2in. diam. Stem 6in. stout, clothed with long mottled sheaths Leaf solitary, pedatipartite. Leaflets 5-11-whorled, sub-sessile, lanceolate, serrulate, caudate acuminate, dark-green above, with a stout mid-rib, pale beneath, base acuminate. Petiole stout, 1ft. long, pale-green, irregularly barred or mottled with pale-purple, Spathe emerging from the sheath of the petiole, very shortly peduncled, 6-18in. long, dark-green, externally striped with