45 



&Ije €rea£urg af SSntang. 



[alst 



ovary, free above ; filament dilated, not 

 narrowed into a claw. They are woody 

 plants, with white flowers, and thickly 

 heset with leaves ; hence the name — 

 from the Greek alsodes, leafy. [M. T. M.] 



ALSOPHILA. A genus of cyatheaceous 

 ferns, representing the Alsophilece ; often 

 becoming magnificent umbrageous trees. 

 Among the cyatheaceous ferns, which 

 are known by the obliquity of the ring 

 of their spore-cases, and by having 

 an elevated receptacle, Alsophila is dis- 

 tinguished, primarily, by the absence of 

 any indusium or cover to the sorus ; and, 

 secondarily, by producing only one sorus 

 on each vein or venule. There are a con- 

 siderable number of species, some of which 

 have been imported for the decoration of 

 our hot-houses. The species have bipinnate 

 fronds, and a considerable number of 

 them are found in the West Indies, South 

 America, and Mexico, a few in Australia 

 and the South Sea Islands, and several 

 more in the East Indies and Malay Islands. 

 A. exxelsa — a native of Norfolk Island — 

 is stated by Capt. King to grow to a height 

 of eighty feet. ' The branches (fronds), 

 which resemble those of the palm-tree in 

 their growth, fall off every year, leaving 

 an indentation on the trunk. The middle 

 of the tree, from the root to the apex, 

 consists of a white substance, resembling 

 a yam, which, when boiled, tastes like a 

 bad turnip : this the hogs feed on greedily. 

 The outside of the trunk is hard wood, and 

 full of regular indentations, from the top 

 to the bottom.' Another tree of the same 

 genus, cut down by Mr. Allan Cunningham, 

 was fifty-seven feet long without the fronds; 

 and Mr .Backhouse measured some forty feet 

 high, crowned with magnificent circular 

 crests of fronds. It is altogether a noble 

 plant, having the stipes and main rachis of 

 its fronds muricate, or rough, with small 

 raised points. The fronds are bipinnate ; 

 the pinnules, or secondary divisions, ob- 

 long-lanceolate, acuminated, pimiatifid, 

 with oblong acutish segments. A. aus- 

 tralis, from the same region, is another 

 fine species. In Tasmania, where Mr. Back- 

 house met with tree ferns in profusion, this 

 species was seen with stems of all degrees 

 of elevation up to twenty-five or thirty feet, i 

 some of them at the lower part as stout as 

 a man's body, the whole length clothed 

 with the bases of old leaves, which were ! 

 rough, like the stems of raspberries, 

 closely tiled over each other, and pointing 

 upwards. Some of the larger fronds were 

 thirteen feet long — maMng the diameter 

 of the crest twenty-six feet. Some of the 

 Indian species are also remarkable for 

 their stature. There is preserved in the 

 British Museum a stately trunk, forty- i 

 five feet long, of A. Brunoniana ; and 

 another of equal height, belonging to A. 

 gi'jonteri, is in the museum of the Linnasan 

 Society of London. Some of the species 

 are, however, without these elongated 

 trunks, although all produce fronds of 

 large size. [T. MJ 



ALSOPHILEiE. A section of cyatheine- | 



ous ferns, in which the sori have no cover. 

 The plants referred to here are sometimes 

 not easily distinguished from Poly podium, 

 the compression of the spore cases being 

 less marked, and the receptacle less ob- 

 viously elevated than in the more typical 

 species. [T. MJ 



ALSTONIA. A genus of the periwinkle 

 family (Apocynacea) differing from most 

 others in the seeds having a tuft of silky 

 hairs at each end, instead of at one end 

 only ; and from its nearest ally, Blaberopus, 

 in the absence of the two nectary scales 

 seen in the flowers of that genus. There 

 are about a dozen species distributed over 

 India, the Moluccas, tropical Australia, and 

 "West Africa. They are trees or shrubs with 

 milky juice ; opposite, often whorled, and 

 entire leaves ; small white flowers disposed 

 in cymes at the ends of the branches, the 

 corolla funnel-shaped with a flat border of 

 five rounded lobes ; and fruits consisting 

 of two cylindrical pods (follicles) the thick- 

 ness of a quill, and often a foot in length. 



A.scholaris, called Devil-tree or Pali-mara 

 about Bombay, is a widely-diffused plant in 

 India and the Moluccas. It is a tree of 

 fifty to eighty feet, with a furrowed trunk ; 

 oblong stalked leaves, three to six inches 

 long, and two to four wide, disposed in 

 whorls of four to six round the stem, their 

 upper surface glossy, the under white, and 

 marked with nerves running at right angles 

 to the midrib. It has a powerfully bitter 

 bark, which is used by the natives In India 

 in bowel complaints, and its light wood is 

 used in Ceylon for making coffins. The 

 wood taken from near the root of what ap- 

 pears to be the same species in Borneo, is 

 of a white colour, very light, and used for 

 floats for nets, and household utensils, as 

 trenchers, corks, &c. The genus bears the 

 name of Alston, once Professor of Botany 

 at Edinburgh. [A. A. BJ 



ALSTROMERIA. A genus of very hand- 

 some amaryllidaceous plants, distinguished 

 by having a six-parted regular subcam- 

 panulate perianth, of which the interior 

 segments are narrower, and two of them 

 somewhat tubuloseatthebase ; six stamens 

 inserted with the perianth ; a trifid stig- 

 ma ; and an inferior three-celled ovary with 

 many horizontal ovules. They are tropical 

 or extra-tropical herbs of South America, 

 with fasciculate tuberous roots, and erect 

 leafy stems, terminating in umbels of 

 showy flowers. The numerous species, many 

 of which have ornamented our gardens, are 

 very similar in character. The leaves in 

 this genus are, by the twisting of the 

 petiole, resupinate ; the upper surface, 

 which is usually smooth, even, and desti- 

 tute both of ribs and stomata, having the 

 peculiar structure and performmg the func- 

 tions of the under surface. This curious 

 economy in the leaves of Alstromeria was 

 first pointed out by the late Robert Brown. 

 Amongst the handsomest of the species 

 may be mentioned A. aurea, an erect herb 

 one to three feet high, with scattered, lan- 

 ceolate, obtuse leaves, reversed, as is the 



