PANDANUS ODORATISSIMUS. 
Linn. suppl. 424. 
94, 95, 96. 
Mugalie is the Telinga name of the male plant, and Ghezanghee 
that of the female. 
Caldera is the name they are known by amongst Europeans on 
this coast. 
Trunk: now and then a plant may be found with a single, pretty 
erect one, of ten feet in height, and a ramous round head; but 
this is seldom, for it is generally in form of a very large, ra- 
mous, spreading bush. From the stems or larger branches 
issue large carrot-shape, obtuse-pointed, roots, descending till 
they come to the ground, into which they enter and then di- 
vide. The substance of the most solid wood is something like 
that of a cabbage stem, and by age acquires a woody hardness 
on the outside. 
Leaves confluent, stem-clasping, closely imbricated in three spiral 
rows, round the extremities of the branches, bowing; from 
three to five feet long, tapering to a very long fine triangular 
point, very smooth and glossy, margins and back armed with 
very fine sharp spines; those on the margins point forward, 
those of the back point sometimes one way, sometimes the other. 
MALE FLOWERS. 
A large, terminal, pendulous, compound, leafy, raceme, the leaves 
of which are white, linear-oblong, pointed, and concave; in 
the axill of each, there is a single thyrsus of simple, small ra- 
cemes, of long-pointed, depending anthers; they are not 
sessile, but raised from the rachis of the raceme by tapering 
filaments. 
FEMALE FLOWERS, on a different plant, 
Terminal and solitary, having no other calyx nor corol than the 
termination of the three rows of leaves forming three imbricated 
fascicles of white floral leaves, like those of the male raceme, 
which stand at equal distances, round the base of the young 
fruit. 
Germs numerous, collected in firm wedge-shape angular bundles of 
from six to ten or more (these form the compound germs of 
the future drupes), closely impacted round the receptacle. 
Style none. 
Stigma single, oval, groov’d lengthwise, yellow, affixed to the out- 
side of a two-lipp’d umbilicus on the apex of the germ. 
Fruit compound; oval, from five to eight inches in diameter, and 
from six to ten long, weighing from four to eight pounds ; 
rough, rich orange-colour, composed of drupes numerous, 
wedge-shape, angular; when ripe, their large, or exterior ends, 
are detached from one another, and covered with a firm, deeper 
orange-colour’d skin; apices flat, consisting of as many angu- 
lar, somewhat convex, tubercles, as there are cells in the drupe, 
each crowned with the withered stigma, internally ; the exte- 
rior half of these drupes (next the apex) consists of dry spongy 
cavities, their lower part next the core or common receptacle 
is yellow, consisting of a rich-looking, yellow pulp, inter- 
mixed with strong fibres ; here the nut is lodged. 
Nut of each drupe compound, top-shape, exceedingly hard, angu- 
lar, containing as many cells as there are divisions on the apex 
of the drupe; each cell is perforated above and below. 
Germen inferum, obcordatum, compressum, alatum, coronatum valvis duabus Oppositis, 
membranaceis, ovatis, acutis, coloratis, longitudine tubi corolle, Stylus extra an- 
theras parum prominens, bifidus, niveus. 
Semina obcordata, compressa, alata, disco pilis raris brevibus tecto. 
Receptaculum margine paleaceum, disco nudum, planum. 
PANDANUS ODORATISSIMUS. 66 
Seed single, oblong, smooth, adhering lengthways to a small fascicle 
of strong, white fibres, which pass through the perforation of 
the cell. By far the greatest number of these cells are barren. 
It is a native of the warmer parts of Asia. All soils and situations 
seem to suit it equally well; it flowers chiefly during the rainy 
season. 
- This plant is much employed for hedges, and answers well, but 
takes much room. It grows readily from branches, whence it is 
rare to find the full grown ripe fruit. The male is by far the most 
common, a circumstance merely accidental; for I have seen some 
old extensive hedges entirely female, owing to there having been 
originally a female plant or plants nearest to these places. 
It is the tender white leaves of the flowers (chiefly those of the 
male) that yield that most delightful fragrance, for which they are 
so universally and deservedly esteemed; and of all the perfumes 
that I know, it is by far the richest and most powerful. 
The lower yellow pulpy part of the drupe is sometimes eaten by 
the natives in times of scarcity and famine, which, alas! occur too 
often; the tender white base of the leaves are also eaten raw or 
boiled, at such melancholy times. The taste of the pulpy part of 
the drupe is to me very disagreeable. 
The fusiform roots, already mentioned, are. composed of tough 
fibres, which basket-makers use to tie their work with; they are so 
soft and spongy as to serve the natives for corks; the leaves also 
are composed of longitudinal, tough, useful, fibres. 
I have never known this plant cultivated with any other view 
than for fences. 
Explanation of the Figures in the Plate 96. 
Fig. 1. One of the fruits. 
2. One of the drupes which compose the fruit. 
3. A perpendicular section of the same. 
4. A transverse section through the spongy part near the apex. 
5. Another section where the nut is lodged, which shows two 
fertile, and nine abortive cells. 
6. A third section near the base below the nut. 
7. The upper part of the nut of the same drupe. 
gs. An under view of the same. 
9. The receptacle or core. 
0) 
. One of the seeds affixed to its fascicle of fibres (aa). All are 
of their natural size. 
97. SALIX TETRASPERMA. 
Trunk erect, but short, as thick as a man’s body. 
Flead \arge, very ramous. 
Branchlets twiggy. 
Leaves alternate, short-petioled, broad-lanced, fine-pointed, most 
minutely saw’d, above smooth, below whitish, from two to 
four inches long. 
Male Ament filiform; its peduncle often leaf-bearing, issuing from 
the dry, smooth, brown, involucre-like scales of the bud. 
Perianth proper small, cup-form, with a long depending tongue- 
like lip. 
Filaments six to eight, retrofracted, three or four times longer than 
the tongue of the perianth. 
Anthers twin, singly orbicular, and groov’d. 
Female Aments shorter than the male. 
Pervanth the same. 
