AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 

 'EDERATED MALAY STATES. 



] AUGUST, 1907. [Vol 



PANDANS. 



The order Pandanacece includes only two or three genera. 

 Freycinetia, climbing plants, Sararanga, a strange plant of the 

 Polynesian Islands and the large genus Pandanus of which we 

 give a photograph of a very fine specimen in the Botanic Gardens, 

 Singapore, viz. Pandanus Kaida. The plant figured is about ten 

 years old, and is a native of India, and is the finest specimen in 

 the Gardens, though there are others older, owing to its position 

 on the island where its roots have freer access to the water. 



The Pandani are trees or shrubs with branched stems, which 

 emit conspicuous stout stilt roots, furnished with a very distinct 

 .joot-cap, by means of which roots the rather weak stem supports 

 e and as in many cases the branches emit roots also some 

 s F>ecies branching low, form eventually a dense forest or thicket of 

 T m l almost im P en etrable. Pandanus labyrinthicus cultivated in 

 ne Economic Gardens has thus formed a huge mass of vegetation 

 ^possible to penetrate. The stems of these plants are occasionally 

 omewhat hard outside, and often armed with small thorny processes, 

 u Ppressed rootlets but are softer inside as is the way of monocotyle- 

 aonous treeS) and as kly decav when cut> the stems are 



Really useless The leayes are j ^ nd narroW) linear> st iff and 

 StkV short or lon g Point. They are armed in nearly all species 

 '" short pale or dark coloured thorns along the midrib and edges. 

 «e leaves are the most useful part of the plants, being used for 

 C" g> Under the ^me of attaps, and for covering of oxcarts 

 beinlk ka J an gs. The trees are unisexual, the male flowers 

 male! 6 ° n different P lants from the females ' And US " a Y ^ 

 ^ndreT e f xtremel y rare in proportion to the female plants In 

 only ' Plants of ^ndanus parvus, and of P. ornatusl^ 

 males co . me across a male P lant - while in many spe . CICS J-f 

 catkin* l quite Un known. The male flowers are borne in white 

 leave, °u en several together, and subtended by long white bracts, 

 leaves S ir°u rtened and white but otherwise similar to the other 

 terrnj nal hey are bor ne on the ends of the branches among the 

 lea ves and hang down from between them. They are 



