501 



ought nevertheless to be associated therewith. They are 

 all aquatics, whence we may presume that India may 

 afford some aquatic palms, smaller than the others, which 

 may prove a connecting link between the latter and the 

 plants of which we are speaking." Giseke points out 

 several palms, in various authors, which though but im- 

 perfectly ascertained, confirm this conjecture of his pre- 

 ceptor. Linnaeus in his own copy of the Genera Plan- 

 tarum, enriched with his manuscript notes, to which we 

 shall often refer, has marked this section, or appendage, 

 of his Palmce, as distinguished by " an inferior fruit, with 

 many seeds." He has moreover added 4 genera to this 

 assemblage, Pandamis, Bromelia, Tillandsia, and Bur- 

 mannia. Giseke has amply illustrated the order of 

 Palmce, by observations of his own, or those of various 

 writers; but the most solid acquisitions to our knowledge, 

 in this interesting tribe, are derived from the labours of 

 Dr. Roxburgh, in his Plants of Coromandel. 



Order 2. Piperita. "The plants of this order have 

 an acrid flavour, whence the name." They afford no 

 common character to discriminate the order, except pos- 

 sibly the elongated receptacle and sessile anthers, but 

 some amentacece, have the same. They consist of Zostera, 

 Arum, and its allies, Orontium, Acorus, Piper, and Sau- 

 rurus. The last is removed by Linnaeus in his manuscript 

 to his 15th order. 



OrderS. Calamakis. "These are closely related 

 to the true grasses, and have almost the same kind of 

 leaves. Their seed is solitary and naked; stamens three; 

 style one, not unfrequently three-cleft at the summit. 

 Their glume is of one valve (whereas most grasses have 

 two valves), except Schccnus, which bears several valves 

 irregularly disposed, though in other respects so near the 

 rest of its order, as scarcely to be distinguished without 

 accurate examination of the parts alluded to. The stem 

 of these plants is a culm, mostly triangular, rarely round, 

 often leafless, or nearly so. Leaves rather rigid and rough. 



