DR. :S1. T. MASTERS ON SOFTH-AFRICAN RESTIACKiE. 219 



The main characteristics of the genus reside in the male inflo- 

 rescence, which is a loose cymose panicle — the bracts and the 

 glumes being comparatively very long and narrow, and flat and 

 membranous in texture. The female inflorescence, on the other 

 hand, is a compact spike, with numerous closely imbricated bracts, 

 of leathery texture, all of which are sterile, except the terminal 

 one, or have only the rudiments of flowers in their axil. The 

 perianth consists of six small, almost rudimentary, membranous 

 pieces, which sometimes increase in size as the fruit ripens, and 

 which in all cases are confluent at the base, with a thickened, fleshy, 

 six-lobed disk beneath the flower and from which they some- 

 times separate in course of time, leaving only the six-lobed fleshy 

 portion, just alluded to, around the base of the fruit. This disk 

 appears to me to be nothing but the tubular and fleshy base of the 

 perianth, encircling, and, to some extent, adhering to, the stalk 

 supportiug the ovary. If this view be correct, the membranous 

 glumes would constitute the limb of the perianth. The study of 

 the development of the female flower can alone settle this point 

 satisfactorily ; but it seems to me to be borne out by some 

 young flowers that I have examined, in which, while the thick 

 tubular disk is apparent, the membranous lobes on its edge 

 are less distinctly visible, while in other flowers a gradual in- 

 crease in the size of these lobes is perceptible. The ovary or 

 unripe fruit is oblong, and terminates in a horny subglobosc 

 extremity, from which the two styles proceed. The lower portion 

 of the ovary in this stage is spongy; and the hardening seems to 

 proceed from above downwards, so that ultimately an oblong, 

 obtuse, cylindrical, indehiscent fruit is produced, like that of 

 Cannaviois^ except that the latter is somewhat flattened, not 



cylindrical. 



The seed has a thin loose testa surrounding the homy albumen. 



The spongy disk below the female flower, coupled with the 

 loosely panicled male inflorescence, serves to distinguish this 

 genus from the other Besfiacece. Its nearest ally is Hypo- 

 discus ; but this differs in its compact male inflorescence, as also 

 does Hypolcena, in which latter, moreover, there is no thickened 

 disk below the flower. Ceratocaryum resembles WiUdenovia, as 

 regards the inflorescence of the male plants ; on the other hand, 

 the female flowers are destitute of a disk. 



CEKATOCAETrM:. 



A genus established in 1836, by Nees von Esenbcck, in tlie 



