Victorian Plants. 505 



ARUNDO. 



2121. Semi-aquatic, very tall, with ample very soft inflo- 

 rescence. 



Stems renewed annually, very robust and rigid ; leaves very 

 long, comparatively also of great breadth, harsh ; panicle 

 iax, partly bending downwards, often somewhat grey- 

 purplish; spikelets flaccid; flowers few, rather remote 

 along the rhacheole, almost concealed by the copious but 

 very tender vestiture, the lowest flower imperfect; bracts 

 thinly membranous, shining ; fruit -supporting bracts ter- 

 minating in a straight, weak, awn-like elongation ; fruit 

 loose within its bracts. " Thatch-Reed." 



A. Fhragmites. 



RHIZOSPER1YIAE. 



2122. Rootlets extensively beset with very subtle fibres. 



Fronds succulent, generally somewhat deltoid in outline, 

 pinnatisected, the segments often slightly distant ; leaf- 

 like organs crowded on the segments, from almost 

 rhomboid to nearly obovate, rather turgid ; generative 

 masses enveloped in a tender membrane ; those of each 

 sex separate ; caselets containing the numerous antheroids 

 (Antheridia) largest, often globular ; those containing 

 the spores often ovate-ellipsoid. (Nourishing often by 

 symbiosis an extremely minute algic organism, always 

 restricted either to this species or to others of its 

 congeners). A. pinnata. 



Rootlets simply capillary. 



Fronds succulent, generally somewhat rhomboid or orbi- 

 cular in outline, pinnatisected, the segments often closely 

 approximated ; leaf-like organs crowded on the segments, 

 from almost rhomboid to nearly obovate, rather turgid; 

 organs of fecundation similar to those of the foregoing 

 species. Figure 127. (A. rubra.) A. filiciiloides. 



2123. Frond-segments resembling leaflets. 



Dwarf, emitting rooting offshoots, glabrous or variously 

 beset with often ap pressed hairlets ; frond -stalks much 

 longer than the segments, solitary or two or more together, 

 very slender ; frond-segments small, frequently cuneate- 



