162 HEXANDRiA MONOGYNiA. Sanseviera. 



ers, striated, smooth. Flowers middle-sized, greenish 

 white, erect, collected in fascicles of from four to six, on 

 little, regularly distant, tuberosities of the rachis . Bractes 

 small, membranaceous. Pedicles clubbed, short, ascend- 

 ing, one-flowered. Calyx none. Corol one-petalled, 

 not in the least wrinkled, funnel-shaped, half six-cleft ; 

 divisions nearly linear. Filaments length of the divisions 

 of the corol, and inserted into the base. Anthers linear- 

 oblong incumbent, half two-cleft. Germ three-lobed, 

 three celled, each containing a single ovula, attached to 

 the axis. Style length of the stamens. Stigma three- 

 sided, clubbed, entire. Berries one, two or three, slight- 

 ly united ; when single, globular, fleshy, orange- coloured, 

 smooth, the size of a pea, one-seeded. Seed globular. 

 Embryo simple, lodged near the base of the perisperm on 

 the outside. 



Observations. 

 In a good soil, when the plants are regularly and mo- 

 derately watered, the leaves grow to be from three to four 

 feet long, and contain a number of fine, remarkably 

 strong, white fibres, which run their whole length. The 

 natives make their best bow strings of these fibres. 

 To separate them from the pulpy parts, they lay a single 

 fleshy leaf, on a smooth bit of board, on one end of which 

 (leaf,) they place one of their great toes, and with a thin 

 bit of hard stick held between the two hands, they scrape 

 the leaf from them, and very quickly remove every part 

 of the pulp. It can also be removed by steeping the 

 leaves in water, till the pulpy parts rot, &c. as is practis- 

 ed with flax, and hemp in Europe, but with me this dis- 

 coloured the fibres much. • 



About eighty pounds of the fresh leaves, yielded one 

 pound of the clean dry fibres. These were gathered at 



