Freycinetia.] CXLIII. PANDANACEiE. Iggi 



2. P. excelsa (tall), F. v. M. Fragm. v. 39; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 •vii. 151. Leaves 8in. to 1ft. long, mostly 3 or 4 lines broad but dilated at the 

 base into short broad imbricate sheaths, tapering into long subulate points the 

 edges serrulate-spinulose towards the base as well as the margins of the sheaths. 

 Male inflorescence ; outer bracts nearly as long as the leaves, which they 

 resemble except for their broad, coloured sheathing bases, which surround the 

 base of the inflorescence. The other bracts are collected into 3 bundles and are 

 except for their green tips, of a deep red colour, and form a star of 3 rays several 

 ■inches in diameter, bearing in its centre the spike .of stamens, the filaments of 



which are short, and bear pale-coloured 2-eelled, obtuse anthers Proc Rov 



Soc. Ql. xi. . ' ^' 



Hab.: Eookingham Bay, Dallachy ; Glasshouse Mountains, Moreton Bay, W. Hill ; Eumundi 

 ((male inflorescence), Bail. ' ' 



3. P. insignis (remarkable), Blume in RumpJda, i. 158, Plate 42. Stem 

 tall climbing, thickly clothed with leafy branches, cylindrical. Leaves approxi- 

 mately spiral, dilated and membranous at the base, 2 to 4ft. long, 1 to li^in. 

 wide, the midrib showing beneath only towards the apex, margins towards base 

 and apex not spiny, leathery, rigid, terminal ones crowded beneath the in- 

 florescence. Inflorescence terminal, very beautiful, consisting of 3 or 5 spadices 

 close together of unequal length, green, scale-like, petaloid, widely ovate, at first 

 closely imbricated. The inner bracts small but very thick, whitish arched 

 entire, silky at the back, curved or erect alternately ; some triangular-^vate' 

 acuminate, pale-reddish, concave beneath, spreading above; outer ones larger' 

 purple, with points ; and also here and there prickles. Spadices of female 

 flowers, 1^ to 2|in. long, and lin. wide, with peduncles of Jin., afterwards 

 increasing considerably in size, rough, semi-terete, white, fleshy. Female flowers 

 very much crowded, with the styles in threes or fours, surrounded by minute 

 staminodia, the subulate filaments united at the base. Anthers apical, adnate 

 fixtrorse, oblong-cordate. Ovaries as long as they are broad, expanding prismati- 

 cally, apices truncate, stigmas disciform, smooth at the margins, in the centre 

 2 or 3-porous, very minutely papillose, the apex ultimately forming a neck 

 stigma terminal, bifid, or ternate, sometimes umbilicate, or tuberculate ; some- 

 times the disk itself with the margins thickened on both sides towards the axis. 

 The ovary contains 2 to 3 placentas, longitudinal, parietal, which support the 

 minute, anatropous, elongated-elipsoid ovules, each attached by a short umbilical 

 funicle, 2-s6riate mainly. Pruit-bearing spadices elongate-ellipsoid, with berries 

 very densely aggregated, obconical, lateral, with succulent pulp, the inner sub- 

 stance homogeneous. Seeds in gelatinous sporophores, many-sided, cylindrical 

 at both ends a little obtuse, straightish, or somewhat curved longitudinally' 

 striate, with a very short |umbilical funicle, with appendages resemblin" costa 

 apex incurved towards ths base. Ohalaza coloured brownish, and at times ijon- 

 spicuous. — Blume, I.e. 



Hab.: Queensland, F, v. M. 



Oeder CXLIV. TYPHACEiE. 



Flowers unisexual, very closely packed in separate heads or spikes alonw a 

 common rhachis, the upper ones males, the lower females, intermixed in the 

 spikes with linear or spathulate scales or long hairs, often forming more or less 

 definite perianths round the stamens or ovaries. Stamens 3 or fewer to each 

 flower; anthers erect, narrow, the cells placed back to back and opening in 

 longitudinal slits. Ovary of a single carpel, containing a single pendulous ovule 

 and tapering into a simple style, with an adnate unilateral stigma. Fruit a small 

 1-seeded nut, with a membranous or drupaceous pericarp. Seed pendulous, with 



