XIV. — ANALYTICAL DRAWINGS OF 
MONOCOTYLEDONS I. 
T HE nine species analysed in this Plate are Monocotyledons of comparatively 
simple structure, though it is doubtful in many cases whether this simplicity 
is primitive or whether it is the result of degeneration. 
Protected by their watery environment from crawling insects that might rob 
them of their honey, they do not, as a rule, produce hairs on their surfaces ; while 
those that have a conspicuous corolla have their petals usually white, white and 
yellow, or white tinged with pink. This seems to be a primitive type of floral 
colouring ; but it also appears to be peculiarly attractive to those insects that hover 
over the surface of water. 
In several cases there are more than three carpels in the flower and there is no 
cohesion between them. This is unlike the main type of Monocotyledons in which 
there are three united carpels : it is a character at once primitive and of great 
interest in tracing the phytogeny , or ancestral history, of plants, since it is one of 
several characters suggesting the relationship of these humbler Monocotyledons to 
Dicotyledons. 
These nine species comprise representatives of four of Engler’s Orders, viz. 
Pandanales , HeLbie<e , Spathijtor^e , and LUiiflor<e ; whilst they are referred to no less 
than five out of the seven “ Series ” into which Monocotyledons were divided by 
Bentham and Hooker. Thus the Families Typhace and Aroidece belong to their 
Series Nudiflor<e , named from the more or less complete absence of a perianth ; the 
Juncagine # , classed under Naiadacea^ and the Alismace <£, represented here by two 
plants, the Water-plantain and the Arrow-head, come in the Series Apocarpea , with 
the character, to which we have just referred, of generally more than three distinct 
carpels ; the Hydrocharitace <e are in the Series Microsperm # , with a corolla, but with 
very minute seeds ; the Juncace <s belong to the Series Calycin<e , with a sepaloid 
perianth ; and N arthecium represents the LUiacete , a Family of the Series Coronariea , 
with a corolla. Of these Series two — the Microsperm<e and the Apocarpe # — have 
exalbuminous seeds, an exceptional character among Monocotyledons, pointing, 
perhaps, to degeneracy. These two Series are united by Engler in his Order Helobie<e. 
The Order Pandanales has spherical or cylindrical inflorescences of unisexual 
flowers, with little or no perianth, but with albuminous seeds. They are mostly, like 
our two representatives of the Order, water-side plants. 
The Reed-mace, now commonly known as the Bulrush ( Typha latifolia Linne) 
has a cylindrical head of closely-packed flowers, the tapering apex of which is 
composed of staminate flowers, one of which is shown in the first figure in the first 
row on our Plate. Fig. 2 is the same enlarged. The lower part of the cylindrical 
flower-head is made up of carpellate flowers packed together in a brown velvety mass. 
The third figure is one of these ; Fig. 4, the same enlarged ; and Fig. 5, the 
solitary, albuminous seed in longitudinal section. 
