i neath, and those of another only half as 

 Ions and palerin colour. Its flower-spikes, 

 which are large and alternately branched, 

 rise up out of the centre of the leaves; 

 those of the large-leaved variety reaching 

 the height of sixteen feet and bearing deep 

 orange-red flowers, while those of the other 

 are not more than six feet high, and have 

 yellow flowers tinged with red. The flow- 

 ers have a tubular perianth of six erect 

 pieces, the three inner of which spread out 

 at the tip ; six stamens projecting beyond 



Phormium tenas. 



the perianth, and alternately shorter; and 



! a three-celled ovary bearing a three-sided 



| style and simple stigma, ripening into a 



iong bluntly triangular three-valved cap- 



| sule, containing two rows of small flatten- 



I ed black seeds in each cell. 



I The leaves of this plant contain a large 



I quantity of strong useful fibre, to which 



the name of Xew Zealand Flax has been 



given. When Captain Cook first landed in 



Sew Zealand, he found this flax in common 



use among the natives for makins various 



articles of clothing, string, nets, &c. ; and 



since the colonisation of that country 



various attempts have from time to time 



been made to render it an article of export, 



but hitherto without much success— the 



cost of preparation, owing to the presence 



of a viscid gummy matter in the leaves, 



being too great to allow of a remunerative 



profit. [A. S.] 



PHORFS. A termination in Greek com- 

 pounds, signifying a stalk, or support; a 

 part which bears some other parts. 



PHOTIXIA. A genus of Pomacem allied 

 to Cratcegus ; but the ovary is usually two- 

 celled only, and the succulent fruit, crown- 

 ed by the persistent lobes of the calyx, has 

 the endocarp thin and cartilaginous, not 

 forming the bony nuts of Cratagus. There 

 are several species natives of the moun- 

 tainous parts of jS'orthern and Eastern 

 India, of China, Japan, and Xorth-west 

 America. They are all erect unarmed 

 shrubs, with evergreen laurel-like leaves, 

 and numerous small flowers in terminal 



panicles. One species, P. serrulata, a native 

 of China and Japan, has long been an in- 

 mate of our shrubberies tinder the name 

 of Crataegus glabra, and is very ornamental 

 as an evergreen from its handsome shining 

 foliage, but more particularly so when cir- 

 cumstances admit of its developing in per- 

 fection its rich panicles of innumerable 

 small flowers of a pure white. P.arbutifnlia, 

 from California, has also been in cultiva- 

 tion, and some of the Himalayan species 

 may be well worth introduction. 



PHOTINOPTERIS. A genus of acrosti- 

 ebaceous ferns of scandent habit, with pin- 

 nate coriaceous fronds, which are fertile 

 and contracted in the upper part, and have 

 the pinna? articulated with a basal auricle 

 on the lower side. The venation is netted, 

 with free divaricate clavate veinlets in 

 the ultimate areoles The fructification, as 

 in this group, occupies the whole of the 

 fertile pinna?. P. speciosa, probably the 

 only species, is found in the Malayan Archi- 

 pelago. [T. M.] 



PHRAGMA. A spurious dissepiment in 

 fruits, i.e. one which is not formed by the 

 sides of carpels ; a partition, of whatever 

 kind. 



PHRAGMIFER, PHRAGMIGER. Di- 

 vided by partitions. 



PHRAGMITES. A genus of grasses be- 

 longing to the tribe Arundima. The inflo- 

 rescence forms large spreading lax pani- 

 cles, with three to six-flowered spikelets, in 

 which respect this genus differs from some 

 others that are nearly allied, but have spike- 

 lets with one flower in each. The flowers 

 are enveloped with long silky hairs. Steu- 

 del describes eighteen species in his. Synop- 

 sis ; these range over various parts of the 

 globe, from Western Europe to Japan. P. 

 communis is the only native species, and 

 is, besides, the largest British grass. 

 Though not valuable for agricultural pur- 

 poses, it is of great importance for binding 

 the earth on river-banks with its exten- 

 sively creeping rootstocks. [D. M.] 



PHRIGANOPTOSIS. A name given by 

 Re to a disarticulation of vine-shoots that 

 takes place principally when the previous 

 summer has been cold and cloudy, and the 

 wood imperfectly ripened. It may be ob- 

 served most years in this country in the 

 small lateral shoots, and was known to 

 Pliny, who after Theophrastus calls it arti- 

 culated. See Cladoptosis. [M. J. BJ 



PHRYKIFM. A genus of Maranlacea?, 

 consisting of tropical Asiatic and American 

 perennial plants with creeping roots, con- 

 tracted stems, stalked leaves, and flowers 

 in terminal heads or panicles. The inner 

 lateral petals (abortive stamens) are larger 

 than the outer or true petals; the lip is 

 two-lobed ; the filament is short, attached 

 to the inner lateral segment of the corolla, 

 the anther terminal ; the ovary three-celled, 

 with a single ovule in each compartment, 

 a style curved above, and an incurved some- 

 what funnel-shaped stigma. Fruit capsu- 

 lar, three-celled, three-valved. Several spe- 



