of running streams. The root, or rhizome, is about an inch in 
thickness, and six or nine inches long, often branching in dif- 
ferent directions like the roots of ginger or turmeric, but in one 
continuous growth, not a succession of distinct formations, at- 
tached at the termination of one and the commencement of 
another. ‘The root is composed of a white fleshy substance, ap- 
parently without large or tough fibres, and is covered with a 
rather thick light-brown skin. “ The plant is attached to the 
sides of the streams in which it grows by numbers of long, fine, 
fibrous radicles, which penetrate and adhere firmly to the loam 
or clay of the banks. Entangled amongst these roots were large 
quantities of decayed leaves, and other vegetable substances, from 
which the plant may probably derive some portion of its nutri- 
ment, though, from the bubbles of air frequently found under 
the leaves, it would seem to possess the property of decomposing 
a portion of the water in which it grows. I was informed that 
it also grew in places which were dry at certain seasons of the 
year ; that the leaves then died down, but the root buried in the 
mud retained its vitality, and when the water returned fresh 
leaves burst forth. The natives spoke of it as tenacious of life, 
and said that whenever the earth around, even the smallest por- 
tion of it, remained moist, that portion would put forth leaves 
when again covered with water. 
“This plant is valuable to the natives, who at certain seasons 
of the year gather it as an article of food, the fleshy root, when 
cooked, yielding a farinaceous substance resembling a yam. 
Hence its native name, Ouvirandrano,—literally, Water-yam, or 
yam of the water: ow, in the Malagasy and Polynesian lan- 
guages, signifying yam; and rano, in the former, signifying 
water. 
“The Ouvirandra is not only a rare and curious, but a sin- 
gularly beautiful plant, both in colour and structure. From the 
several crowns of the branching root, growing often nearly a foot 
deep in the water, a number of graceful leaves, nine or ten inches 
long and two or three inches broad, rise on slender stalks, and 
spread out horizontally, just beneath the surface of the water. 
The flower-stalk rises from the centre of the leaves, and the 
branching or fork-like inflorescence is curious ; but the structure 
of the leaf is peculiarly so, and seems like a living fibrous skele- 
ton, rather than a perfect leaf. The longitudinal fibres extend 
in curved lines along its entire length, and are united by thread- 
like fibres or veins crossing them at right angles from side to 
side at short distances from each other. The whole leaf looks 
as if composed of fine tendrils, wrought after a most regular 
pattern, so as to resemble a piece of bright-green lace or open 
needlework. Each leaf rises from the crown on the root like a_ 
short, delicate-looking, pale-green, or yellow fibre, gradually un- 
