Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — A BRILLIANT EXOTIC. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A BRILLIANT EXOTIC.

Peculiar liuds ami Flower* of the Arlstoloclilu Glean. There was one day recently a flower of the Arlstolochla gigas open in oneof the houses at Kow, which, according to the Pall Mall Budget, is an extraordinary plant. The buds resemble, a pelican at* rest on the water, and the expanded flower is likea.large sou’wester hat. The color is a cream yellow, veined all over with purple. It is a climber, and the flowers hung l from the roof over a sugar-cane in the house where the water lily (Victoria regia) is grown. The family of plants to which it belongs is a widespread one, an example, though a rare one, being found in our own bithwort, which grows upon ruins and old walls. Besides the use which its comrndn English name suggests, this species of plant has undoubted medical properties. Thus it is much used in India for the cure of snake-bites, acting As it does in preventing the coagulation of the blood, which is one of the peculiar symptoms of blood-poison-ing. The plant in flower has been in Kew for about two years. There are several buds in stages of progress, all of which will flower provided we are not visited by fogs or frost. Noth-

ing more remarkable has been on exhibition at Kew since the century plant flowered there a few years ag(P

THE ARISTOLOCHIA GIGAS.