spadices protected by leafy spathes. Perianth wanting. Male flowers: Stamens numerous; filaments all distinct or connate in clusters; anthers erect, basifixed, 2-celled. Rudimentary ovary present or absent. Female flowers: Staminodia small or wanting. Ovary 1-celled, free or connate with those of adjoining flowers; stigma nearly sessile, papillose; ovules either solitary and basal, or numerous and attached to parietal placentas. Fruit an oblong or globose mass of densely compacted free or connate tough or fleshy drupes. Seeds solitary or many in each drupe; testa striated; albumen hard and fleshy; embryo minute.
A small order of 3 genera and about 160 species; most abundant in the islands of eastern tropical Africa and the Malay Archipelago, extending southwards to Australia, the Pacific islands, and New Zealand; not known in a native state in America. The leaves of most of the species ace used for mat-making, thatching, &c., and would probably be useful for the manufacture of paper. The New Zealand genus extends as far north as Malacca.
1. FREYCINETIA, Gaud.
Climbing or scrambling shrubs. Stems often very long, branched, rooting. Leaves long, linear, sheathing at the base, keeled, entire or more usually serrulate. Spadices terminal, fascicled, sessile or pedunculate, enclosed within foliaceous bracts with fleshy and often coloured bases. Male flowers numerous, each one consisting of several stamens surrounding a rudimentary ovary; filaments short; anthers oblong. Female flowers of many 1-celled ovaries densely packed on the rhachis of the spadix, cohering at their bases, each ovary surrounded by minute staminodia, apex broad, truncate, crenulate; placentas 2 or more; ovules numerous, in 2 series on each placenta. Fruit an oblong mass of more or less fleshy or almost woody drupes. Seeds numerous, fusiform or ellipsoid; testa crustaceous or inembranous; albumen copious; embryo basilar.
A genus of over 50 species, scattered through Malaya, the Pacific islands, and Australia, with one species in New Zealand.
1. F. Banksii, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 320.—A lofty climber, often reaching the tops of tall trees, or scrambling over rocks or prostrate trunks; branches many, stout, rooting. Leaves numerous towards the tips of the branches, 1½–3 ft. long, ½–1 in. broad, linear-elongate, finely acuminate, broadly sheathing at the base, concave, coriaceous, nerved, margins and midrib minutely spinulose-serrate. Spadices fascicled at the tips of the branches, cylindrical, peduncled, 3–6 in. long, diœcious; bracts numerous, leafy, the innermost with white or pale-lilac thick and succulent bases. Filaments rather long, filiform. Ovaries very densely packed, about ⅓ in. long, rather fleshy in fruit. Seeds small, linear-oblong; testa cellular.—Raoul, Choix, 41; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 237, t. 54, 55; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 275; Bot. Mag. t. 6028.
