95 
united to the bark of the primitive central stem. These 
lateral portions are circular in outline, save that they are 
flat on the side by which they are attached to the central 
stem, which latter is in consequence hexagonal. The attach- 
ment of the lateral portions to the central mass is not very 
firm, as most of the ropes of this species reach this country 
with their strands separated, but this is due to the rough 
usage to which they have been subject in packing; but 
Gaudichaud points out that in certain parts of the stem — 
most likely at the nodes, for he is not very clear upon the 
point — the lateral strands have an organic attachment to 
each other, since some of the woody fibres of the central mass 
are continued in one of the lateral strands, and vice versa . 
(“ Recherches,” pi. xiii. figs. 2 and 3, p. 110.) 
A still more remarkable example supplied by this family 
in the form of a natural rope, is one which might have served 
our telegraph engineers as the model of a submarine cable. 
Like the Serjania, there is a central woody mass possessing 
a medullary sheath and pith, woody layers, and a cortical 
system; but surrounding this central core and arranged 
parallel with it is a series of eight lateral strands each sur- 
rounded by its own bark, the whole being consolidated so 
as to form a rigid cylindrical axis, which presents no exter- 
nal manifestation of its peculiar internal organization. It is 
represented in the last figure of Gaudiehaud’s “ Recherch.es” 
(pi. xviii, fig. 21, p. 130) and has been copied into most of 
our text books, in some cases incorrectly described as a 
Malpighiaceous plant, as by Professor Balfour in his “ Class 
Book,” figs. 186 and 1429. 
On examining such stems of this order as I have been 
able, the pith and medullary sheath with its characteristic 
tracheal vessels appear to be met with in the central mass 
only, and some botanists, contrary to the opinion expressed 
by Jussieu (“Memoire,” pp. 116 — 117,) doubt the existence 
of these organs in the lateral strands. Nevertheless, one of 
