Wood-plants—Palmaceæ.
Plants with woody shaft and with fruits, mostly enclosed in spadices.
1630. The desiccation of the cells and fibres is promoted by the increased process of oxydation. Where therefore the tracheæ attain the preponderance, there the conversion into wood originates.
1631. The stalks of these plants are not hollow, but have a dense interior, because the fasciculi of tracheæ lie within the liber, and there increase.
1632. The main bulk of the stalk will consist of tracheæ.
1633. As the tracheæ are longitudinal organs, and the other tissues also extend lengthways, so does the stalk or stem in these plants predominate over the other parts.
1634. In this class the most perfect leaves as regards their present stage are developed; for they are only expansions of the tracheæ, which are here present in superabundance. As regards the form also, these leaves must rank higher than those of the preceding class; the spathe is shorter, the leaf itself usually broad, many-ribbed, and frequently pinnate. The leaves are also perfect as to position, being no longer mere radical leaves, but situated upon the stalk, even on its apical extremity.
1635. The ramification gradually emerges into view, where forsooth its occurrence is possible in the shaft-plants, or in the inflorescence. It is always multiple in character, mostly spadici-, muscari-, and paniculiform.
1636. As regards the blossom the ovarium is most perfectly evolved, because it is developed out of the stalk; it is ternary and becomes elevated into a fruit with few seeds.
1637. The corollæ are frequently stunted, yet regular and 2 × 3ary, though insignificant on account of the preponderance in size of the fruit.