380 PART IV. — VEGETABLE TAXONOMY. 



clusters are either a spadix, a head, or a panicle with fleshy 

 branches, and are nearly always enveloped in a spathe. Both 

 staminate and pistillate flowers are usually borne in the same 

 inflorescence, the ovaries are always superior, the embryo is 

 small, and, except in the Duckweeds and Naiads, the albumen 

 is copious. The Arums, Screw-pines, Palms and Cat-tails, are 

 other members of the group. 



(D) The Enantioblastse are either succulent herbs or 

 grass-like plants. The flowers are in cymose clusters ; the floral 

 leaves usually consist of five whorls of three each, but sometimes 

 the flowers are dimerous ; the perianth whorls are, in some spe- 

 cies, showy and differentiated into calyx and corolla, in others 

 they are glumaceous ; the pistils are superior, syncarpous, and 

 two or three celled, and the seeds are orthotropous and albumin- 

 ous. The Restias, Pipeworts, Xyrids, and Spiderworts, are the 

 chief representatives of the group. 



(E) The Scitamineae have unsymmetrical flowers with a 

 two-whorled perianth, which, in most species, is petaloid, but in 

 some is differentiated into calyx and corolla ; some of the stamens 

 are frequently aborted, or are represented only by stamen-like 

 bodies or staminodes ; the pistil is syncarpous, and the ovary 

 is three-celled and inferior ; the fruit is either a berry or a 

 capsule ; and the seeds are destitute of an endosperm, but have 

 a copiously developed perisperm. The plants are large herbs, 

 mostly perennial, and have ample, pinni-nerved leaves. To this 

 group belong the Bananas, Gingers and Cannas. 



(F) The Gynandrse are characterized by their asymmet- 

 rical trimerous flowers ; their two-whorled, petaloid perianths ; 

 their gynandrous stamens, which, by abortion, fall below the 

 normal number ; their pollen, which is commonly either in clus- 

 ters of four grains each, or aggregated into larger masses, called 

 pollinia ; their ovaries, which are inferior and composed of three 

 united carpels ; their numerous, very minute seeds, which are 

 without an endosperm, and their very imperfectly developed 

 embryos which are not differentiated into rudimentary root, 

 stem and leaf. To this group belong the Orchids and the closely 

 allied Apostasias. 



(G) The Liliiflorae constitute a large group which present 

 considerable diversity in the different orders, some having an 



