This order contains many lofty trees, which are, with one exception, without branches, and bear a tuft of large leaves, called fronds, at the summit. The flowers are small, with bracts, and they are enclosed in a spathe, which bursts on the under side. The mass of flowers is called a spadix; and it is succeeded by the fruit, which, when ripe, is either a drupe or a berry. In the Cocoa-nut Palm (Cocos nucifera) the fruit is a drupe; but the pericardium consists of hard, dry, fibrous matter, which is uneatable, the only part fit for food being the albumen of the kernel. The Date Palm (Phœnix dactylifera), and the Sago Palm (Sagus Rumphii), are two interesting plants, from their products.
ORDER CCII.—PANDANEÆ.
The most interesting plant in this order is the Screw Pine (Pandanus), which has the habit of the Palms, but the flowers of the Arum tribe.
ORDER CCIII.—TYPHINEÆ.—THE BULLRUSH TRIBE.
The Bullrushes (Typha), also called Cat’s-tail and Reed-mare, are tall rush-like plants, with a cylindrical mass of dark brown flowers round the stem, surmounted by a spike of yellow flowers. The lower dark-brown flowers are female ones, and the yellow ones are the males; the former consist only of an ovary on a long stalk, and a calyx cut into fine hairs so as to form a kind of pappus. The male flowers have a chaff-like calyx, enclosing the stamens, the filaments of which are united at the base, and the anthers are very long and of a bright yellow. The seed is a dry capsule, and the plant has a rhizoma or creeping stem under the water.
ORDER CCIV.—AROIDEÆ.—THE ARUM TRIBE.
These curious plants have their flowers in a spadix, enclosed in a spathe, the male and female flowers being separate, and the former above the latter, with some abortive ovaries again above them. The male flowers have only one stamen in each without any covering; and the female flowers in like manner consist each of a single ovary, with a puckered-up hole in the upper part, which serves as the stigma. The fruit consists of a cluster of red berries, which form round the spadix. Many of these plants have a very unpleasant smell, and some of them have a tuberous root, which, when cooked, is eaten, though it is poisonous when raw. Arum or Caladium esculentum is thus eaten as a common article of food in the East Indies; but the Dumb Cane (A. or C. seguinum) has its English name from its juice being so poisonous as, if tasted, to cause the lips to swell so as to prevent the possibility of speaking. The beautiful marsh plant called Calla or Richardia ethio pica, or the White Arum, belongs to this order; as does the fragrant rush, Acorus Calamus. The order Typhaceæ is included by many botanists in Aroideæ; and indeed, the difference between them consists principally in the Bullrushes having no spathe.