SECT. II 



PHANEROGAMIA 



471 



played by the individual flowers, they are frequently reduced, par- 

 ticularly as regards the perianth, whose function is assumed by the 

 axis and sheathing bracts ; sometimes a reduction also occurs in the 

 andrcecium and gyncecium. 



Many species are pollinated by the wind, and these possess incon- 

 spicuously coloured, though 

 often enormous inflorescences. 

 In most species, however, the 

 inflorescences are adapted to 

 insect-pollination. The spathes 

 and free parts of the axes, but 

 not the individual flowers, are 

 in such cases equipped with 

 enticing colours, and serve as 

 organs of attraction. 



Family Palmae. — Flowers 

 of the regular Monocotyledonous 

 type or with reduced gynce- 

 cium ; aggregated in profusely 



BRANCHED INFLORESCENCES, 



which are provided with SEVE- 

 RAL spathes. Woody plants 

 with unbranched stems and 

 pinnate or palmately divided 

 leaves (Figs. 409-411). 



The vegetative organs afford 

 the most characteristic means 

 of distinguishing the members 

 of the family. The simple 

 (branched only in Hyphaene the- 

 baica) cylindrical stems bear a 

 rosette of large pinnate or pal- 

 mately divided leaves at the 

 summit, which gives them a dis- 

 tinctive appearance (Fig. 410), 

 easily recognisable and charac- 

 teristic of only a few other 

 plants (Tree -Ferns, and Cyca- 

 daceae). A few species are Kane- 

 like in form and mode of growth 

 (e.g. Calamus). The leaves are 

 not, like true compound leaves, divided in their early stages ; they are, 

 on the contrary, first developed as entire plicate leaves, which ulti- 

 mately become slit into segments by the subsequent death and rupture 

 of the tissue at the edges of the folds. The inflorescences (Fig. 409) 

 are generally axillary and hang down below the leaves ; in the cases 



Fig. 409.— a, Inflorescence of Caryota urens, greatly 

 reduced ; 6, branch of the inflorescence of Cocos 

 nuci/era, with a female flower below, and male 

 flowers [above. (After Dkude in Nat. PJlcmzen- 

 i nat. size.) 



