Pandanus. DIOECIA MONANDRIA, 739 
Trunk, now and then a plant may be found with a single, 
pretty erect one, from ten to twelve feet in height, and a ra- 
mous round head; but this is seldom, for it is generally in 
form of a very large, ramous, spreading bush ; from the stems, 
or larger branches, long, fusiform, obtuse-pointed roots issue, 
descending till they come to the ground which they enter and 
then divide. The substance of the most solid wood is some- 
thing like that of a cabbage stem, which by age acquires a 
woody hardness on the outside. Leaves confluent, stem-clasp- 
ing, closely imbricated in three spiral rows, round the extre- 
mities of the branches, drooping, 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, all those on the margins point forwards, those of the 
back point sometimes one way and sometimes the other. Male 
inflorescence terminal, a large pendulous, compound, leafy 
panicle, the leaves thereof are white, linear-oblong, pointed 
and concave, in the axill of each there is a single thyrse 
composed of simple, small racemes of long, pointed, depend- 
ing anthers, which are not sessile, but raised from the rachis 
of these partial racemes by tapering filaments, hence [I call 
these parts of the thyrse racemes and not spikelets. Female 
flowers on a different plant, terminal, and solitary, having 
no other calyx, or corol than the termination of the three 
rows of leaves forming three imbricated fascicles of white 
floral leaves or involucres, like those of the male racemes, only 
here they stand at equal distances round the base of the 
young fruit, Germs numerous, collected into firm, wedge. 
shaped, angular bundles, of from six to ten ; these form the 
compound germs of the future fruit, and are closely impact- 
ed round the receptacle. Style none, Stigmas single, on 
each undivided germ, oval, grooved lengthways, yellow, af- 
fixed to the outside of a two-lipped umbilicus, on the apex of 
the germ. Pericarp ; fruit compound, oval, from six to eight 
inches in diameter, and from six to ten long, weighing from 
four to eight pounds, rough, of a rich orange colour, com: 
402 
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