PALMAE 
5*6 
For further details of P. see Nat. PJl . , Haberlandt’s Tropenreise , 
pp. 62 seq., Seemann’s History of the Palms , and Treas. of Bot. 
Panax Linn. (incl. Cheirodendron Nutt., Nothopanax Seem.). Ara- 
liaceae. 30 sp. As., Afr., Polynes., Austr., N. Z. 
Pancratium Dill, ex Linn. Amaryllidaceae (1). 1 2 sp. Medit., trop. As. 
Pandanaceae. Monocotyledons (Pandanales). 3 gen. with 225 sp., 
characteristic plants of the Old World tropics (p. 191), but also 
extending a little into the warm temperate zone. They are mostly 
sea-coast or marsh plants with tall stems supported upon aerial roots, 
and are frequently branched ; buds are found in all axils, and the 
branching appears dichotomous ; some are climbers. The aerial 
roots have marked root-caps of membranous texture. The leaves 
are in 3-ranked phyllotaxy, but the stem is usually twisted so that 
they appear to run in well marked spirals, whence the name of screw- 
pines. The leaf is parallel-veined, long, and narrow, with an open 
sheath and usually thorny margin ; it is generally sharply bent down- 
wards at the middle, and is corrugated like a palm leaf. 
The infl. is terminal, with a few bract-like leaves at the base going 
gradually over into the foliage leaves, and is usually a racemose spadix 
with neither bracts nor bracteoles to the individual flowers, which are 
somewhat difficult to make out. The S firs, in sp. of Freycinetia 
have a rudimentary gynoeceum, but in the rest of the order they 
have not. The floral axis of the S flr. bears a number of sta., 
arranged in a raceme or umbel-like manner upon it. The gynoeceum 
in the ? flr. consists of 00 cpls. in a ring, i-loc. or 00 -loc., the union 
being more or less complete, or it may be reduced, even to 1 cpl., or 
to a row of cpls. arranged transversely. Stigmas sessile. Ovules 
anatropous. Fruit a berry or a multi-loc. drupe, often containing 
hollow spaces which aid it in swimming. Seed with oily endosperm. 
The plants yield thatch, &c. 
Genera : Sararanga (infl. paniculate ; firs, pedicelled ; drupe), 
Freycinetia (infl. capitulate or spicate; firs, sessile; berry), Pandanus 
(infl. as last ; firs, sessile ; drupe). Placed in Nudiflorae by Bentham- 
Hooker, in Spadiciflorae by Warming. 
Pandanales. The 1st cohort of Monocotyledons (p. 125). 
Pandaneae (Benth. -Hooker) = Pandanaceae. 
Pandanus Rumph. ex Linn. f. Pandanaceae. 150 sp. trop. As. and Afr. 
(the screw-pines). Trees with flying-buttress roots. The firs, are in 
large heads, enclosed in spathes. The J consists of 00 sta., arranged 
in various ways upon the axis, the ? of 1 — 00 cpls., free or united. 
Each gives a drupe containing as many seeds as there were cpls. 
Seeds albuminous. The pericarp is rich in fibres. The fruits of 
some sp. are cooked and eaten, e.g. P. leram Jones, the Nicobar 
bread-fruit. The leaves of many are used for weaving, e.g . P. tectorius 
Sol., which is actually cultivated in Java for this purpose. Several, 
again, have sweetly scented firs, or leaves which are a good deal used 
for ornament and otherwise in the East. 
