858 XL. ASTELIEiE. 



S. aspera, nipra, mauritanica and alpina, yield Italian Sarsaparilla, the properties of which are analogous, 

 but much inferior. The China-root, procured from Asiatic species (& adna, zeylanica, perfoliate), 

 possesses the same qualities as the American Sarsaparilla. The bulky roots of some species of the same 

 genus, and oi Ripogamm of Asia and Australia, are full of starch, and hence edible. That of Luztcriaga 

 radicans is used in Peru and Chili as a substitute for Sarsaparilla. 



XL. ASTELIEy-E, Brongrnart. 



Astelia Ttemichrysa. 

 Pruit. 



A. Tiemichrtjsa. 

 Seed, entire and cut Tertically, 



A . hemichi'ysa. 



Albumen cut 



Tertically (mag.). 



A, Solandri. 

 A. Solandri, Embryo 



Seed cut vertically. (mag.). 



Perennial tufted heebs, often epiphytal on old trees. Eoots fibrous. Leaves 

 radical, imbricate, linear-lanceolate or ensiform, keeled, covered below, or on both 

 sides, witli long silky or silvery hairs. Flowers polygamo-dicDecious, racemed or 

 panicled, or rarely sub- solitary ; pedicels not jointed, 1-bracteolate at the base. 

 Perianth sub-glumaceous [rather membranous or sub-coriaceous], silky outside, 

 6-partite, imbricate, persistent. Stamens 6, inserted at the base of the perianth ; 

 anthers introrse, Ovart 3-celled {Astelia Solandri, nervosa, &c.), or 1-celled by 

 absorption of the septa, and with 3 parietal placentas {A. linearis, Gunninghamii, 

 &c.) ; style 1 or ; stigmas 3 ; ovules numerous, anatropous. Fruit a berry, or a 

 loculicidally 3-valved capsule. Seeds more or less numerous, appendiculate at the 

 top or at the two ends ; testa black, crustaceous ; eiidopleura membranous ; albumen 

 thick. Embryo straight, cylindric, axile. 



PEINCIPAL (JENEBA. 

 Astelia. Milligania. 



AsteliecB are not closely allied to any family, but they most nearly approach HypoxidecB in their 

 radical Grass-like and velyety leaves, their perianth, androecium, ovary, &c. The habit of most of the 

 species recalls that of Tillandsia amongst Bromeliacece ; like these they are often epiphytes, and lire on 

 large trees, -where they resemble birds' neats ; others inhabit swamps. They are met with in New; 

 Zealand, Bourbon, Tasmania, the Sandwich Islands and South America. 



Blume has described a Javanese dioecious undershrub, with fibrous root, lanceolate leaves tomentose 

 beneati) and panicled flowers with a six-partite persistent perianth, three-celled ovar}' and one-seeded 

 berry of which he made his genus Hcmgimna, which he considers near Astdiece. 



