Apr.. I92I] WIELAND MONOCARPY IN THE CYCADEOIDS 219 
cut down to the base, is often striking in the extreme, especially in some of 
the Pandanales because little expected. Renewed growth from stem-base 
or root may then be a characteristic of singular or extreme types. It may 
even accompany gigantism. 
Undoubtedly there is a less known side to monocarpy and the monocarpic 
tendency; while even in the commoner instances, variations either individual 
or within the habitat, and details concerning any subsequent root branching, 
may fail. The classical example is of course the "umbrella palm " of Ceylon, 
Corypha umbraculifera. After a vegetative period of towards forty years 
the mature height of sixty feet is reached, when in a single short season the 
stem shoots forty feet higher as a much branched flowering stalk. Mean- 
while the foliage fronds wilt down and leave this immense terminal inflores- 
cence with a branch spread of thirty feet, bearing tens of thousands of 
flowers. 1 
This unparalleled gigantism, however, scarcely exceeds in outright 
interest a Jamaica plant known as the "pride of the mountain," Spathelia 
simplex, a member of the rue family. For this plant is nearly related to 
hardwood perennials like Citrus, and the Rutaceae are not so generally 
monocarpic. The slender trunk, scarred by the fallen leaves, reaches a 
height of fifty feet, bearing an apical cluster of large, velvety, pinnate leaves 
three or four feet long. The pinnules are numerous (45-81), sessile, oblong- 
lanceolate, crenate. At maturity a large terminal panicle of showy purple 
flowers rises above the leaves, the plant dying down after the ripening of 
fruit. There is thus afforded an example of a tall and quite typical dicotyl 
of much the same habit and habitus as the "umbrella palm." 
The primary form of monocarpy finds a notable variation along ecologic 
lines in the greatest of the grasses, the bamboos. The life cycle in the 
bamboos varies greatly. Many species bloom annually; and there are 
also cases of sporadic flowering, with, however, the final production of 
flowers on all the culms — ripening of seed then terminating the life of the 
plant {Arundinaria Simoni), In the bamboos of the south Brazilian prov- 
inces of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, along the borders of the 
imposing Araucaria hrasiUana forest, a thirteen-year monocarpic period 
occurs. For Bamhusa tesselata in cultivation a not very authentic record 
of a sixty -year cycle is given. 
Floral periodicity is well attested in the Indian (Ganges) Bamhusa 
arundinacea, reported in flower in the years 1804, 1836, 1868, [1900]. In 
the Blue mountains of the Island of Jamaica at an altitude of 4,000 to 7,000 
feet over a region ten miles long, occurs the "climbing bamboo" {Chusqtiea 
^ All the genus Corypha is perhaps more truly monocarpic than are other so-called 
instances. Root shoots are not sent up. There are two Ceylon species, and other repre- 
sentatives in Bengal and farther eastward. In this connection there should be added the 
interesting case of the Mauritius hemp, Furcraea americana, an agave-like plant. Suckers 
are not readily produced, but any such flower at the same time as the parent stock. Propa- 
gation is mainly by bulbils after flowering. 
