Mr. MILLER in his figure of this plant, to which LINNÆUS refers, has been more happy in his representation than in that of many others; RUMPHIUS' figure and description accord also with our plant, some of his leaves indeed are more perfectly three-lobed than any we have seen here on the living plant and to this variation, he informs us, they are subject. We learn from Mr. MILLER, that roots of this Arum were brought from Ceylon in the year 1752. It flowers in May and June, and is regarded both by Mr. MILLER and Mr. AITON as a stove plant; we have seen it succeed very well with the treatment of a tender greenhouse plant. It is one of the least of the tribe; its root is like that of the common Arum, and extremely acrid: but the plant is more particularly distinguished by the rich, brown, velvety appearance of its flowers; the length of its tapering spadix, which on its lower part is full of little cavities, and resembles a piece of metal corroded by long exposure; and by the intolerable stench which the whole of the flower, but more especially the spadix, sends forth. It is a native of Amboyna, as well as of Ceylon. RUMPHIUS informs us that the roots, sometimes eaten raw by mistake, cause violent inflammations of the mouth and throat, and that they do not lose their acrimony even when boiled. The plant increases freely by offsets from its roots. [340] POLYGALA HEISTERIA. HEATH-LEAVED MILKWORT. _Class and Order._ DIADELPHIA OCTANDRIA. _Generic Character._ _Cal._ 5-phyllus: foliolis 2 majoribus alæformibus, ante maturitatem seminis coloratis. _Capsula_ obcordata 2-locularis, _Semina_ solitaria. _Specific Character and Synonyms._ POLYGALA _Heisteria_ floribus imberbibus lateralibus, caule arborescente, foliis triquetris mucronato-spinosis. _Linn. Syst. Veg. ed. 14. Murr. p. 639. Ait. Kew. v. 3. p. 6._ SPARTIUM africanum frutescens ericæ folio. _Comm. Hort. 2. p. 193. t. 97._ THYMBRA capensis nepetæ Theophrasti foliis aculeatis flore parvo purpureo. _Pluk. Alm. 366. t. 229. f. 5._ HEISTERIA. _Hort. Cliff._ 352. [Illustration: _N^o. 340_] After receiving various names, this plant has been finally placed by LINNÆUS among the Milkworts; it retains the trivial name of _Heisteria_, instead of the generic one previously bestowed on it, in honour of Prof. HEISTER, the celebrated German Surgeon. In Holland it appears to have been long since known; but was a stranger here, till introduced from the Cape, by Mr. MASSON, in 1787. _Ait. Kew._ In the course of a few years it becomes a shrub of considerable size, equalling a small furze bush, to which, in its habit, it bears a distant resemblance; and furze-leaved, in our humble opinion, would have been a more expressive name than heath-leaved, which Mr. AITON has given it in accordance with COMMELIN's idea.