THE PLOEAL WORLD AND GABDEN GUIDE. 353 



THE PAXDAXUS AXD ITS KINDRED. 



BX GEOBGE GORDOX. 

 (TTi.'A Coloured Illustration uf a group of Pandayius in Eastern Africa.) 



HE Pandanads, or Screw Pines, comprise a genus of plants 

 alike remarkable for nobility of aspect, elegance of out- 

 line, and economic value. In the latter respect they are 

 not surpassed by many other forms of tropical vegetation, 

 for owing to the peculiar formation of the roots, they 

 are especially adapted for binding sandbanks where hardly any other 

 plants are able to obtain a foot-hold. The fruits, or drupes, are 

 available as an article of food in times of scarcitv. The leaves and 

 the fibrous matter obtained from them are employed in the manu- 

 facture of ropes, nets, and matting of various descriptions ; and 

 with the fibres obtained from the aerial roots, hats, baskets, mats, 

 etc., are made by the natives of the countries to which the pandanads 

 are indigenous. 



As decorative plants, they deservedly stand high in the esti- 

 mation of English cultivators, for there are but few plant stoves in 

 which examples of one or more of the species are not found, and aU 

 the cost ornamental kinds make their appearance annually at the 

 principal exhibitions, in conjunction with other plants remarkable 

 for the beauty of their foliage. 



There is a remarkably fine collection of Screw Pines at Kew, and 

 many of the specimens are of immense proportions as compared 

 with those usually met with under cultivation; but even these fail 

 to convey an adequate idea of the striking effect produced by 

 huge groups in their native habitats. It is, therefore, anticipated 

 that the coloured illustration of a natural group of Pandanus in. 

 tropical Africa would be especially interesting to our readers. The 

 illu-stration is a copy of a painting by T. Baines, Esq., in the Kew 

 Museum. The locality where the sketch was taken is thus described 

 by Mr. Baines : — " Some miles from the mouth of tlie Zambesi, as 

 the mangrovyes (which have performed their office in converting the 

 accumulating ihoals into land capable of bearing a superior vege- 

 tation) begin to be supplanted by other trees, the most strikinor 

 feature in the landscape is the tall Pandanus, which towers above 

 the brush that skirts the various channels of the delta, and in the 

 distance, especially when thickly draped w4th creeping plants, pre- 

 sents the appearance sometimes of poplar groves, and sometimes of 

 village spires ; it seems to begin where the mangrove — i.e., the kind 

 which forms the advanced guard in reclaiming the land from the 

 sea — begins to cease, and where palms of various kinds — dwarf fan 

 palm, wild date, Doam palm, zamias, a kind of Stryehnos, bearing 

 an orange-shaped fruit, large flowering Hibiscus, and occasional 

 cocoa-nuts — begins. Some of these channels are so narrow, that in 

 passing through, the vessel would brush the reeds on both sides, 

 while the main streams would be several hundred yards in width. 

 The specimen.? shown in the sketch were situate in a perfect tangle 



December. 23 



