woe 
xe 
74 
DR. O. STAPF ON SARARANGA SINUOSA. 487 
modification, generally connected with an increase of carpels, is 
the extension of the linear axis into a plane, and consequently 
the arrangement of the carpels into two parallel rows. In this 
case the carpels meet with their ventral sutures along the ideal 
plane, the stigmas facing this plane ; when the number of carpels 
is still more increased, some of them are, so to say, pushed from 
the periphery into the centre, where they form small groups by 
themselves. These phalanges, as they have been called, give, 
I believe, a clue to the nature of the arrangement of the carpels 
in Sararanga. If we imagine a gynaeceum consisting of 70-80 
concentrically-arranged carpels compressed in one direction 
only, they would form a long linear phalanx; but supposing 
them to be compressed from several sides, the forces acting 
approximately centripetally, the result would necessarily be an 
arrangement of carpels, such as we find in Sararanga. In fact, 
the multiplication of carpels to so great a number as in Sara- 
ranga, is only conceivable under conditions as in Sararanga, 
since the carpels cannot well be reduced in size below a certain 
limit, and as there is no actual axis which would increase 
proportionately at the same time in diameter. That a certain 
symmetry is still maintained in the strictly parallel arrange- 
ment of the carpels within the divisions of the gynaeceum is 
probably due to the absence of pressure from the nearest 
flowers, which, being stalked, are out of contact from an early 
stage, whilst they often cause the complete suppression of one 
half of the phalanx in Pandanus, where all the flowers are 
sessile. On the other hand, the gynaeceum is not exactly 
symmetrically lobed, and this I am inclined to explain by the 
absence of stamens or a more differentiated perianth or any 
other organs with a definite disposition, which might determine 
the development of the gynaeceum. Although the disposition 
of the carpels is on the whole more complex in Sararanga than 
in certain species of Pandanus having linear phalanges, it is, 
nevertheless, in every respect the same within each division or 
lobe. Thus it is not difficult to trace the structure of the 
gynaeceum of Sararanga back to the perfectly plain type of a 
Pandanus, like P. fascicularis, and if Solms-Laubach’s inter- 
pretation of the female flower of Pandanus is correct, and | 
cannot see how it could be called in doubt in view of the 
perfectly unambiguous structure of the flower of Freycinetia, 
we must consider also each of the fruits of Sararanga as the 
