Sauromatum
(from saura, a lizard; alluding to the specked interior of the spathe). ORD. Aroideae (Araceae). A genus consisting of about half-a-dozen species of stove, tuberous-rooted, herbaceous perennials, natives of tropical Asia and Africa. Flowers on a long, appendiculate spadix, shorter than the spathe, males and females remote; spathe marcescent, at length vanishing, the tube ventricose, the margins more or less connate, the throat opening, the lamina lanceolate, elongated. Leaves solitary, pedately parted; petioles elongated, terete. The introduced species are here described. They thrive in a compost of light loam and peat, in equal proportions. Propagated by offsets.
S. guttatum (spotted). fl., spathe tube green outside, oblong, the lamina olive outside and yellowish-green within, with rather large, irregular, dark purple spots; spadix terete-conical; peduncle short. May. l., segments oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate; petioles unspotted. h. 1 1/2ft. Himalayas, 1830. (B. R. 1017, under name of Arum venosum.)
S. pedatum (pedate-leaved). fl., spathe tube dark purple within, loosely constricted above the middle, the lamina narrow-elongated, yellowish, with very dense, confluent, purple spots. March. l. pedatisect; segments seven, nine, or eleven, obovate-oblong, acute, very shortly or scarcely acuminate, obtuse at base; petioles long. h. 3ft. East Indies, 1815. (R. G. 495.)
S. punctatum (dotted). fl., spathe green, marked with brown spots; peduncle short. l. trifoliolate; middle leaflet solitary, elliptic, long-acuminate; lateral ones pedately seven-parted, the outer segments smaller. h. 1ft. Himalaya (?), 1858.
S. venosum (veined).* fl., spathe purplish outside, the tube oblong, the lamina yellowish within, with crowded, small, oblong, purple spots; spadix appendix very long, cylindrical; peduncle very short, violet-spotted. l., segments oblong, cuneate towards the base, acuminate at apex, the midrib and lateral nerves yellowish; petioles spotted. h. 1ft. East Indies, 1848. (B. M. 4465; F. d. S. 1334; L. J. F. 12, under name of S. guttatum.)