THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 107 



its germinating condition two seed-leaves. These are of a 

 leathery consistence, but finally by action of the winds, separate 

 into shreds many feet in length. It was, then, once considered 

 that these cotyledons are the only foliage that the plant ever 

 possesses. The fructification is by means of cones appearing 

 on the periphery of the stocky stem at the bases of the opposite 

 leaves. Some of the flowers are pistillate and some are per- 

 fect. 



These "trees," if we can so call them, have been aptly 

 termed "anvil-like" and the sandy countr}' is studded with 

 them. The discoverer found them deeply imbedded in the soil 

 and resembling a cracked and dried up Polyporus. They have 

 a decidedly antediluvian suggestion and, in some respects, 

 seem to connect Angiosperms with Gymnosperms, or plants 

 with closed ovary with those of naked ovules. 



While, as above stated, the leaves were once considered 

 persistent cotyledons, more recent investigations at Kew led 

 rather to the supposition that they represented the plumule and 

 that the seed-leaves were deciduous. This matter was 

 brought out in 1880, in Nature, Vol. 22, page 590. The plant 

 lives for more than a century. Good pictures and analyses are 

 given in Dr. Hooker's translation of LeMaout and DeCaisne's 

 Botany. Hooker also issued a fine monograph of the genus. 



Brozcii University, Providence, R. I. 



An Unusual Use of Pollen. — In a recent number of 

 the Philippine Journal of Science Count Ugolino Martelli 

 states that in parts of the Philippines a screw-palm (Pandanus 

 tectorius var. laevis) is cultivated for its pollen which is used 

 as a hair powder. 



