540 



NATURAL ARRANGEMENT. 



457. Order CXCIX. PONTEDE^REiE. 



Genera 3, Species 10 ; Hot-house Species 5 ; Green-house Species I ; Hardy Ligneous Species 0 } 

 Hardy Herbaceous Species 4. fO feet ; £ 0 feet ; ±6 feet. 



Elegant aquatic plants, usually with cordate kidney- shaped leaves, and central spikes or racemes of blue 

 flowers. Natives of North and South America. Division and offsets. 



959 Pontederta L. 



2 | 135 Heteranthera Beauv. 



1 | 134 Leptanthus Mx. 



458. Order CC. COMMELI'NEiE. 



Genera 8, Species 71 ; Hot-house Species 41 ; Green-house Species 13 ; Hardy Ligneous Species 0 ; 

 Hardy Herbaceous Species 17 $ 0 feet ; )£ 9 feet ; =g= 0 feet. 



Mostly inhabitants of marshy ground in either hemisphere, but not known in Europe except in cultivation ; 

 America is their grand station. Many are elegant plants, usually with blue, reddish, or white flowers. Dichori- 

 zandras are exceedingly noble caulescent plants, with large thyrses of blue flowers : this color is the prevailing 

 one of the order. Division, seeds, and offsets. 



1004 Dichorizandra Mik. 1 1002 Cyanbtis D. Don. 0 1 I 113 Aneilema R. Br, 



1001 Campelia Rich. 1003 Carton ema R. Br. 112 Commelina L. 0 6 



1000 TradescanUa L. 0 10 | 111 Calh'sia L. \ 



459. Order CCI. PA'LMiE. 



Genera 40, Species 130 ; Hot-house Species 119 ; Green-house Species 11 ; Hardy Ligneous Species 0 ; 

 Hardy Herbaceous Species 0. J 0 feet ; ](P 0 feet ; ± 0 feet 

 These were well named by Linnaeus the princes of the vegetable world ; for they far surpass all other plants 

 in the grandeur and majesty of their port. Their lofty stem, supported by a mass of fibrous roots, which fre- 

 quently creep along the surface of the ground, consists of wood with longitudinal fibres, soft in the centre, but 

 hard as horn itself at the circumference; it is always unbranched, bearing a tuft of leaves at the summit; 

 always round, and it terminates by a single bud ; by the fall of the petioles of the leaves, which sheathe it 

 in a greater or less degree at the base, it is covered with large scars. The leaves, technically called fronds, 

 are usually pinnate or flabelliform, seldom simple ; and, in a young state, before they expand, they are 

 folded up in plaits from the base to the apex. The flowers are small, with bracteae at their base, either 

 sessile or seated in some cavity, of a pallid color, and contained in a large bag called a spatha; when they 

 open, the mass of inflorescence, called a spadix, bursts suddenly through the under side of the spatha, 

 generally evolving the most fragrant odors. Impregnation takes place rapidly, through the injection of the 

 pollen upon the humid surface of the stigmas, which gape open to receive it. The fruit is perfected in a 

 period varying from six months to a year ; when ripe it is a drupe or berry, with either a fibrous or fleshy coat; 

 the mass of its kernel consists of oily albumen, which, in the case of the cocoa nut, is soft enough to be eaten, 

 but which in most species is as hard as horn. Dr. von Martius, the celebrated traveller in Brazil, to whom the 

 world is indebted for nearly all that is known of these plants, concludes his remarks upon the characters of the 

 order in the following words : — " Palms, the noble offspring of Terra and Phoebus, are natives of those happy 

 countries within the tropics, where the rays of the latter are ever beaming. In all such climates they are to 

 be found, with this limitation, however, that in the southern hemisphere they do not overstep the35rh degree 

 of latitude, nor in the northern the 40th. Most species are confined within fixed and narrow bounds ; for it 

 comes to pass that wherever a district is characterised by striking peculiarities of soil or climate, those species 

 exist which are not found elsewhere ; but few, on the contrary, extend over a large extent of surface, as the 

 Cbcos nucfera, Acrocomia sclerocarpa, Borassus flabelliformis, &c It is probable that the number of palms 

 existing on the face of the earth, will be found by future travellers to amount to as many as a thousand species. 

 Most of them love the margins of springs and streams, but few establish themselves on the shores of the ocean, 

 and yet a smaller number ascend into the alpine regions of their country; some collect in large forests ; some 

 are scattered singly or in clusters among woods and plains. In the most ancient periods of the world, when 

 the genera of plants were beginning to be formed, palms scarcely existed; they were preceded in the creation 

 by the more ancient Ferns, Cycadea?, Grasses, and Equisetacese. Some of their remains have, however, been 

 found in variegated sandstone, and in limestone of the third order (fletzkalk), part of which belong to unknown 

 species, and part to species still in existence. But in the times succeeding the deluge, they appear, from the 

 written evidence of historians and poets, to have followed the footsteps of man, to whom their fruit yielded 

 food, drink, and oil ; their stems houses, arms, utensils, flour, and wine ; and their leaves cordage, and roofs 

 for habitations. In cultivation their soil should be slightly saline; they are propagated by seeds more readily 

 than by truncheons of the stem ; when cultivated they undergo no alteration, except in producing more fleshy 

 or stemless fruit : it is extremely difficult to transplant them beyond their own country; naturally their migra- 

 tion is absolutely opposed by the barriers of the ocean." Seeds. 



2778 Chamasdurea W. 



1124 Sabal Adan. 

 2880 Rhapis L. 

 2883 Chamfe v rops L. 



1125 LivistbnzVz R. Br. 

 2818 Latania Com. 

 2815 Lodoicea Com. 



996 Corypha L. 



997 Taliera Mart. 

 2745 Phce N nix L. 

 26 37 Sngus Gae. 



2779 Hypha? x ne Gae. 

 2682 Arica L. 



2642 CEnocarpus Mart. 



26+1 Leopoldlnn: Mart 



2643 Euterpe Gae. 



2644 Walhchm Rox. 

 2777 Elas v is Jac. 

 2648 Syagrus Mart. 

 2639 £'late L. 



2645 Acrocomia Mart. 

 2638 Cbcos L. 

 2882 Maximilians Mart. 



999 Thrlnax L.fil. 

 2647 Astrocaryum Mey. 

 2782 Geonoma W. 

 3415 Kunthia Hum. 



460. Order CCII. PANDA V NE^L 



2781 Mauritia L. fil. 



9^8 Licuala Thun. 



987 Calamus I. 

 2881 Seafortm R. Cr. 

 2? 75 Carybta L. 

 2676 Dimothemium Mart. 

 2679 Attalia Hum. 

 2617 Gomutus Rum. 

 2678 Manicaria Gae. 

 2780 Borassus L. 

 2681 N>pa Rum. 

 2646 Desmoncus Mart. 

 2640 Bactris Jac. 



Genera 2, Species 9,1 ; Hot-house Species 21 ; Green-house Species 0 ; Hardy Ligneous Species 0; 

 Hardy Herbaceous Species 0. £ 0 feet ; £ 0 feet ; g§ 0 feet. 



With the habit of palms, and the inflorescence of Aroideae, this fine order stands very distinctly separated 

 from all others. The stem is an arborescent caudex, usually growing to a considerable height. The leaves 

 of some are formed into a coarse cordage ; the flowers of P. odoratissimus, and the fruit of some others, are 

 eaten. All are tropical. Cuttings. 



2730 Pandanus L. fil. | 2816 Phytelephas R. $ P. 



461. Order CCIII. TY'PHINJE. 

 Genera 2, Specks 8 ; Hot-house Species 0 ; Green-house Species 0 ; Hardy Ligneous Species 0 ; 

 Hardy Herbaceous Species 8. HO feet; £ 0 feet ; ^ 7 feet. 

 Reed-like plants, common every where throughout the world in lakes and ditches, usually with strong 

 creeping roots) and long soft, or round prickly catkins of inflorescence. All natives of Britain. Roots and 

 Divisions. 



2597 7?pha L. *0 4 | 259S Sparganium L *0 4 



