653 



MONOCOTYLEDONS. 

 HYDROCHARIDEAE. 



Vallisneria, Linn. 



Vallisneria spiralis, Lt7m.; Fl. Trop. Afr. VII. p. 5. 



///.— Hook. Bot. Misc. iii (1833) tt. 22-24; Journ, Roy. 

 Hort. Soc. xlviii. pp. 536-537 and numerous other works. - 



Vernac. names. — Sawala, Syala^ Punatsu Pancbu-dub (India — 

 Watt). 



Lagos (Barter, No. 20163, Herb. Kew), in other parts of 

 Africa — Nile region, Congo, Lake Nyasa, and commonly found 

 throughout the warm parts of the globe. 



The moist, succulent leaves are used in India to cover the 

 surface of sugar in the native process of refining (Watt, Diet. 

 Econ. Prod., India). 



This x^lant is also mentioned here because of its scientific 

 interest. It is an aquatic plant commonly grown in aquaria in 

 this countrj^, remarkable for its method of fertiUsation — the male 

 flowers become detached from their short stalks below water 

 and rise to the surface before expanding to release the pollen, 

 and the female flowers are borne on long stalks that expand 

 spirally to the surface of the water, where they are fertilised 

 by the floating male flowers, when the spiral stalk coils up again 

 to ripen the berries below^ water near the base of the plant^ — and 

 as an object for microscope — the leaves showing cyclosis of 

 the chlorophyll or protoplasmic granules. Barter collected his 

 specimen in a lagoon. 



ORCmDEAE. 



Va^^illa, Sw. 



Vanilla planifolia, A^idr. Bot. Rep. (1808) t. 538. 



A climber, dinging by means of aerial roots. Leaves succu- 

 lent, shortly petioled, bright green, about 6 in. long, 2 in. broad, 

 apex.^ acute. Inflorescence an axillary raceme, each raceme 

 bearing upwards of 20 large greenish -coloured flowers. Pods 

 3-8 in. long, slender, developing on the surface the VanilHn 

 crystals and the well-krtf:)wn perfume when dried for commerce. 



///. — SaUsbury, Pai-ad. Lend. t. 82 (Myrobroma fragrans) ; 

 Andr. Rep. t. 538; Loddiges, Bot. Cab. t. 733; Blume. Rumphia. 

 i. t. 68, 1 2; L'Hort. Universel, Paris, 1. 1839, p. 169 t. 23; 

 Hayne, Darst. Beschr. Gewachse, xiv. t. 22; Berg & Schmidt, 

 Darst. Beschr. Pharm. iii. t. 23ab ; Bentl. & Trimen, Med. PL 

 t. 272 ; Kohler, Med. Pflan. ; Zippel, Ausl. Handels Nahrpfl. t. 

 12; Kew Bull. 1888, p. 79; Bot. Mag. t. 7167;' Gard. Chron. 

 Aprd 8th, 1899, p. 213 (in fruit); Proc. & Journ. Agric. Hort. 



(from Kew Bull. I.e.); Orchis, 



V. 1910, t. 2; L'Agron. Col. Paris 



X 13721 



X 



