70 On Pandanophyllum and allied genera. [No. 2, 



On Pandanophyllum and allied genera, especially those occurring 

 in the Indian Archipelago ; by S. Kurz, Esq., Curator of the 

 Calcutta Herbarium. 



[Received and read 7th October, 1868.] 



The genus 'Pandanophyllum, established in 1844, by Dr. Hasskarl 

 in his catalogue of the plants, cultivated in the Botanic gardens at 

 Buitenzorg (p. 297) remained for a long time but imperfectly known, 

 until Dr. Thwaites in his Ceylon plants, and Professor Otidemans in 

 von Mohl and Schlechtendal's " Botanische Zeitung" directed the 

 attention of botanists to this interesting genus of tropical plants. 



Some time ago I noticed, in Professor Miquel's supplement to the 

 flora of Sumatra, several species which that author had placed in the 

 genus Lepironia, but which doubtless are congeners of Pandano- 

 phyllum. This circumstance has induced me to examine all the 

 Indian species belonging to Pandanophyllum and its allies, and at 

 the same time to describe those species, w T hich occur in the Indian 

 Archipelago, as far as the materials at my disposal allow it. In 

 the present communication, I shall briefly state the results which 

 I have thus obtained, trusting that they will be acceptable to Indian 

 botanists. The new genus, Thoracostachyum, of which I shall give 

 a detailed characteristic in the course of this paper, forms to a certain 

 extent a connecting link between Hypolytrum and Lepironia, but it 

 is sufficiently distinct from both of them, and deserves to be treated as 

 an independent genus of Cyperace^e. 



Scirpodendron, established by the late Zippelius in the Herbarium 

 of the Botanic gardens at Buitenzorg, is the most gigantic of all 

 the Cyperace^ I am acquainted with and, when destitute of flowers, 

 it is hardly to be distinguished from stemless screw-pines. 



HYPOLYTKE.E, N. U. 

 Spicae compositae squamis undique imbricatis sqamulis squamae * 

 ut plurimum contrarie instructis ; spiculae solitariae, rarius teniae, 

 squama opposita obtectae, compressae, 1 — multiflorae, diclines v. raro 

 hermaphroditae ; flosculi masculi monandri, uni-squamulati, saepius 

 ad squamulam solam reducti ; flosculus femineus centralis v. excentri- 



