CflAP. II. 
THE OUVIKANDKA FENESTRALIS. 
43 
more numerous at that particular place. At length he brought 
me a fine lot of plants in excellent condition, and I was glad 
to reward him for his trouble, and to take them immediately 
under my own charge. 
The natives describe this plant as growing in running 
streams. The root or rhizome is about the size of a man’s 
thumb in thickness, and six or nine inches long, often branch¬ 
ing in different directions like the roots of the ginger or 
turmeric, but in one continuous growth, not a succession of 
distinct formations attached at the termination of one and 
the commencement of another. The root is composed of a white 
fleshy substance apparently without large or tough fibres, and 
is covered with a somewhat thick light brown skin. I was in¬ 
formed that it also grew in places which were dry at certain 
seasons of the year; that the leaves then died down, but the 
root, buried in the mud, retained its vitality, and, when the water 
returned, fresh leaves burst forth. The natives spoke of it as 
tenacious of life, and said that wherever the earth around even 
the smallest portion of it remained moist, that portion would put 
forth leaves when again covered with water. This plant is not 
only extremely curious, but also very valuable to the natives, 
who, at certain seasons of the year, gather it as an article of food, 
—the fleshy root, when cooked, yielding a farinaceous sub¬ 
stance resembling the yam. Hence its native name, ouviran- 
drano , literally, yam of the water ,—ouvi in the Malagasy and 
Polynesian languages signifying yam, and rano in the former 
and some of the latter signifying water. 
The ouvirandra is not only a rare and curious, but a sin¬ 
gularly beautiful plant, both in structure and colour. From 
the several crowns of the branching root growing often a foot 
or more deep in the water, a number of graceful leaves, nine 
or ten inches long, and two or three inches wide, spread out 
horizontally just beneath the surface of the water. The 
flower-stalks rise from the centre of the leaves, and the 
