ENDOGENOUS OR 3IONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 485 



hats, baskets, mats, fences, for torches, and for writing upon ; the 

 stalk and midrib for oars ; tlieir ashes yield abundance of j^otasli ; 

 the juice of the flowers and stems (replete with sugar, which is 

 sometimes separated under the name of Jagery) is fermented into a 

 kind of wine, or distilled into Arrack ; from its spathes (as from 

 some other Palms), when wounded, flows a grateful laxative bever- 

 age, known in India by the name of Toddy ; the rind of the fruit is 

 used for culinary vessels ; its tough, fibrous, outer portion is made 

 into very strong cordage ( Coir rope) ; and an excellent fixed oil is 

 copiously expressed from the kernel. Sago is procured from the 

 trunks of many Palms, but chiefly from species of Sagus of Eastern 

 India. Canes and Rattans are the slender, often prostrate, stems of 

 species of Calamus. — The Phytelephas, or so-called Ivory Palm, 

 of Central America, the seeds of which are the Vegetable Ivory now 

 so commonly used by the turner, in place of ivory, for small articles, 

 is not a genuine Palm, having polygamo-dioecious flowers with a 

 rudimentary perianth, or none at all, &c. It is proposed as the type 

 of an order (Phytelephante^) ; but may for the present be ap- 

 pended to the Palms ; between which and the succeeding orders 

 stands the 



920. Ord. PanddliacefB ; tropical arborescent plants, of Palm-like 

 port, but their simplified diclinous flowers destitute of a perianth, the 

 one-celled ovary many-ovuled. The seeds of Pandanus (the Screw- 

 Pine, Fig. 140), «S:c. are eatable. From the young leaves of Car- 

 ludovica the famous Panama hats are braided. 



930. Ord. TypliaceiB {the Cat-tail Family) consists of two genera ; 

 namely, Typha (the Cat-tail), and Sparganium (Bur-reed), of no 

 important use. They are spadiceous plants with excessively re- 

 duced flowers, having no perianth. 



931. Oi'd. AraceiE (Arum Family). Herbs, with a fleshy corm or 

 rhizoma, often shrubby or climbing plants in the tropics ; the leaves 

 sometimes compound or divided, commonly netted-veined. Flowers 

 mostly on a spadix (often naked at the extremity), usually surround- 

 ed by a spaihe or hood (Fig. 313, 314). Flowers commonly moncc- 

 cious, and destitute of envelopes, or with a single perianth. Ovary 

 one- to several-celled, with one or more ovules. Fruit a berry. 

 Seeds with or without albumen. — Fx. Arum, Calla, Symplocarpus 

 (Skunk-Cabbage), Orontium, Acorus (Sweet Flag) : the three latter 

 bear flowers furnished with a perianth. — All are endowed with an 

 acrid volatile principle, which is merely pungent and aromatic in 



41* 



