AND ANATOMY OF THE GENUS RESTIO. 213 
diccious plants, of which it commonly happens that botanists are 
cognizant of one sex alone, and among which the sexes are very 
liable to be wrongly matched, the limitation of the genera must 
of necessity be very uncertain. This uncertainty and confusion 
pervades the writings of authors on this and allied genera, and 1 
cannot but think that observers should refrain from publishing 
new groups in this family until they are in a position to examine 
and describe both sexes. 
As I proceed, I shall, I believe, be enabled to show that, as Nees 
surmised, 2. aristatus, Thunb., and some few allied species differ 
greatly as to their female flowers from true Restios, although the 
male flowers are indistinguishable from those of the latter genus. 
In this particular instance the male plants are common in her- 
baria, and are comparatively well known to botanists; but the 
female plants are so rare, that hitherto I have only met with them 
in Dr. Sonder’s herbarium, wherein they are named by Nees him- 
self. The last-mentioned botanist has incurred some blame for 
assigning so well-known a plant as J£. aristatus to a new genus, 
but this I believe to be due to the cause already mentioned, viz., 
the rarity of female plants in collections. On the other hand, 
Steudel’s genus Ischyrolepis must, from the evidence I shall ad- 
duce, be suppressed, and merged in the genus Restio (see R. sub- 
verticillatus). 
But the consideration of this portion of my subject I propose 
to defer until after I have given an account of the organography 
and minute anatomy of the genus Restio—an account which, how- 
ever imperfect, will apply in many points mutatis mutandis to the 
other genera of the order. 
In outward appearance and habit these plants have much of the 
aspect of their near allies the Sedges and the Rushes. Their roots 
present little worthy of comment, being merely simple fibres of 
woody texture and more or less flexuose habit, descending from 
the under surface of the stock. In R. triflorus, Rottb., and some 
other species the fibres spread horizontally for some distance, 
and do not at once descend. The direction may possibly be con- 
nected with the nature or depth of the soil in which the plants 
grow. : 
Rhizome or Rootstock.—This is usually contracted and small, 
giving origin to the roots below, and throwing up the culms from 
its upper surface ; occasionally it is extended horizontally, and is 
then spoken of as “creeping,” though this habit seems not com- 
mon in this particular genus of Restiacem. In what I believe to 
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