304 PANDANACE.^ . fcHAP. 



species are generally restricted in the area over which they 

 extend. The Cocoa-nut is one of the most widely dispersed, 

 occurring on the shores of most tropical countries. A 

 few Palms reach as far north as China, Japan, and the 

 United States, while a single species is native of Southern 

 Europe, — the Dwarf Fan Palm {Chamczrops humilis). 



96. Natural Order, Fandanacece. — The Screw-Pine Family. 



Stem woody or herbaceous. Leaves linear (except Nipd), 



Flowers sessile, in heads or spikes. Perianth o (except in 



Nipa, 6). 



Type — Pandaniis odoratissim us. 



A forking or unbranched tree, everywhere planted, giving off 

 buttress- like adventitious roots, with a terminal crown of long, 

 prickly leaves arranged in three spiral rows, and dioecious 

 flowers : the males delightfully fragrant, in long, pendulous, 

 leafy, panicled spikes ; the female is a terminal one. 



The flowers are achlamydeous, the stamens being crowded 

 upon the spadices, and often cohering in bundles ; the car- 

 pels one-celled and one-ovuled, densely packed on the 

 female cone. The multiple fruit consists of a number of 

 closely-packed fibrous one-seeded drupes. 



The Screw-Pines derive their appellation not from any 

 resemblance to the Pine Family, but rather from the simi- 

 larity of their foliage to that of the Pine-apples {Brome- 

 liacecB), and especially to that of the Pine-apple itself 

 {Bromelia Aiianas)^ a tropical American plant much culti- 

 vated in hot climates. 



Observe tlie tendency to form adventitious roots from 

 the lower part of the trunk : the forked branching of the 

 trunk, unusual amongst arborescent Monocotyledons : the 

 trifarioiis (three-rowed) arrangement of the leaves, with their 

 prickly margins and keel. 



