282 



Anomalies. Phytelephas has pinnate leaves ; but it is a doubtful plant of 

 the order. 



Essential Character, — Flowers dioecious or polygamous, arranged on a wholly covered 

 spadix. Perianthium wanting. Filaments with single anthers ; anthers 2-celled. Ovaria usual- 

 ly collected in parcels, 1-celled ; stigmas as many as the ovaries, sessile, adnate (ovula solitary, 

 «rect). Fruit cither fibrous drupes, usually collected in parcels, each 1-seeded ; or many- 

 celled berries, with polyspermous cells. Albumen fleshy; embryo in its axis, erect; plumula 

 inconspicuous.— Stem arborescent, usually sending down aerial roots, sometimes weak and de- 

 cumbent. Leaves imbricated, in three rows, long-, linear-lanceolate, amplexicaul, with their 

 margins almost always spiny. Floral leaves smaller, often coloured. R. Br. 



Affinities, This is a tribe of plants having the aspect of gigantic Bro- 

 melias, bearing the flowers of a Sparganium ; while there is no analogy with 

 the former in structure beyond the general appearance of the foliage; the or- 

 ganization of the fructification bears so near a resemblance to the latter as to 

 have led to the combination of Pandanea? and Typhacere by botanists of the 

 first authority. But when we contrast the naked flowers, the compound highly- 

 developed fruit, the spathaceous bractea?, the entire embryo, and the arbores- 

 cent habit of the former, with the half-glumaceous flowers, the simple fruit, the 

 want of spathaceous bractere, the slit embryo, and the herbaceous sedgy habit 

 of the latter, it is difficult to withhold our assent from the proposition to sepa- 

 rate them. Mr. Brown justly remarks (Prodr. 341.), that these have no 

 affinity with Palms beyond their arborescent stems. Freycinetia, the genus to 

 which the character of polyspermous cells, minute seeds, and a pulpy pericar- 

 pium belongs, is described by M. Gaudichaud as having a very minute embryo 

 lodged in the upper part of semitransparent albumen. It is possible that this 

 is the station of the remarkable plants described by Poiteau as having an inflo- 

 rescence which may be compared to two folded ribands rolled spirally round a 

 cylinder ! one full of stamens, the other full of ovules ! ! and called Cyclan- 

 thes. M. Poiteau has unfortunately omitted to give a sufficient explanation 

 of the analogy between the structure of these plants and more regular forms 

 of inflorescence, and his figures do not afford such information as could be 

 wished for ; but it may be conjectured that his ribands are connate bractea, 

 subtending, alternately, naked staminiferous and pistilliferous flowers. Panda- 

 neee are remarkable among aborescent monocotyledons for their constant ten- 

 dency to branch, which is always effected in a dichotomous manner. Their 

 leaves have also a uniform spiral arrangement round the axis, so as to give the 

 stems a sort of corkscrew appearance before the traces of the leaves are worn 

 away. The Chandelier Tree of Guinea and St. Thomas's derives its name 

 (Pandanus Candelabrum) from this peculiar tendency to branching. 



Geography. Abundant in the Mascaren Islands, especially the Isle of 

 France, where, under the name of Vaquois, they are found covering the sandy 

 plains. They have peculiar means given them by nature to subsist in such 

 situations in the shape of strong aerial roots, which are protruded from the 

 stem, and descend towards the earth, bearing on their tips a loose cup-like 

 coating of cellular integument, which preserves their tender newly-formed ab- 

 sorbents from injury until they reach the soil, in which they quickly bury them- 

 selves, thus adding at the same time to the number of mouths by which food 

 can be extracted from the unwilling earth, and acting as stays to prevent the 

 stems from being blown about by the wind. They are common in the Indian 

 Archipelago, and in most tropical islands of the Old World, but are rare in 

 America. From this continent Cyclanthus and Phytelephas are the only ge- 

 nera of Pandaneae, if they really belong to the order, that have been described. 

 The former, called Tagua, resembles Palms in its fronds, which equal those 

 of the Cocoa Nut in dimensions, in its torulose scaly stem, and, finally, in the 

 remarkable structure and weight of its fruit. Humb. de Dislr. Gtogr. 198. 



