Pandanns. dioecia monandria. 739 



Trunks 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, ranious; 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 ijnbricated 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 

 l)ack point sometimes one way and sometimes the other. Male 

 hiflorescence 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 arc 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 diflferent plant, terminal, and solitary, liavino- 

 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, wedo-e- 

 shapcd, 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, coni- 



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