Revision of the Genus Pandanus Stickman, Part 28 
The Australian Species Published by Robert Brown 
Harold St. John 1 
When still a young man, Robert Brown 
served as botanist upon the exploring expedition 
under Capt. Matthew Flinders which in 1802- 
1805 surveyed the coasts of southern, eastern, 
and northern Australia. His collections in- 
cluded specimens of Pandanus from the tropical 
eastern and northern coasts. Two of them he 
published as new species, and they were the 
first representatives of the group to be made 
known from Australia. His manuscript, written 
on the trip, contains good and lengthy descrip- 
tions of these novelties, but when published in 
1810 these were drastically condensed to a very 
few descriptive words for each. These two, 
Pandanus pedunculatus and P. spiralis, have 
been maintained by most subsequent botanists, 
but have been given very diverse application, 
all of which interpretations were in reasonable 
agreement with their brief diagnoses. Type 
specimens of both are still in the British Mu- 
seum, and they are here illustrated and described 
at length, to help Australian botanists under- 
stand these first Australian species. 
Section Eydouxia 
Pandanus spiralis R. Br., Prodr. Florae Novae 
Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen 341, 
1810; Martelli, Webbia 4(1): 31, 90, 94, t. 
13, %. 1-2, 1913. 
Figs. 267-269 
EXPANDED DIAGNOSIS OF LECTOTYPE: "Trunk 
often 3.3-4 m tall, terete, unarmed, decumbent 
at base, as thick as a person’s thigh, often scaly 
from leaf bases, bearing prop roots; leaves in 
three spirals, strongly imbricate, keeled, the 
margins with ascending spines, the midrib be- 
low with the lower spines reflexed or alternately 
reflexed and ascending, or more commonly the 
midrib unarmed; pistillate inflorescence solitary, 
1 B. P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii 96819, 
U.S.A. Manuscript received March 7, 1964. 
ovoid, bracteate” (fide Brown’s mss.) ; phalanges 
5.8-6 cm long, 7. 8-8. 8 cm wide, 6. 3-7. 7 cm 
thick, suborbicular but with the base broad 
truncate, obtusely 5-6-angled, the lateral sutures 
wanting, the sides gently convex, not mortised, 
mostly developing numerous longitudinal dark 
cracks, upper % free, the apex semiorbicular, 
smooth, shining, when dried pale, yellowish 
brown, apical central sinuses mostly 0, but a 
few 0.1-1 mm deep, straight, dark, or in age 
splitting and brown, forming a conspicuous 
superficial tessellate pattern; carpels 19-23, 
subequal, the apices rounded to form part of 
the semiorbicular phalange apex, though essenti- 
ally low convex, each carpel apex has perceptible 
ridges radiating to the angles, and the few 
most central ones are very oblate pyramidal or 
retuse around the summit, but the marginal and 
near marginal ones have a tiny concave platform 
distal of the stigma; stigmas 1.5-2 mm wide, 
reniform to cordate, "whitish,” turning brown, 
papillose, centripetal, the inner flush or slightly 
tilted centrally, the outer raised and divergent; 
proximal sinus a broad crack running y 3 -y 2 
way to valley bottom; endocarp centering in 
lower %, bony, massive, the lateral walls 10-13 
mm thick, bearing lateral shoulders; mesocarp 
forming in the apex of each carpel a cavity 
crossed by a few longitudinal fibers and with 
transverse membranes; basal mesocarp scant, 
fleshy and fibrous, 3-7 mm long. 
staminate plant (Brown 3,799 in part) : 
Staminate inflorescence subtended by numerous 
foliaceous bracts, sword-shaped, the outer green 
and foliaceous, the inner progressively more 
white, the lower 45 cm long, 5 cm wide, the 
uppermost 10 cm long, 5 mm wide, all with 
subulate prickly margins and midrib below, at 
least towards the tip; staminate spikes numerous, 
4-7.5 cm long, 3-3.5 cm in diameter, dense, 
cylindric; fascicles of stamens 1.5-2. 5 mm long, 
bearing 10-35 stamens; column 6-10 mm long, 
stout; free filament tips 2-3.5 mm long; 
412 
