“This gigantic tree,” says Von Humboldt in his “ Pictures of Nature,” “grows in the garden of M. Franchi in the little villa ‘ys Orotava, called Taora, one of the most beautiful spots in the civilised world. In 1799, when we ascended the peak of Teneriffe, _ We found that this enormous vegetable was forty-five feet in circumference a little above the root. Sir George Staunton asserts that at the height of ten feet the tree is twelve feet in diameter. tradition reports that this tree was an object of veneration to the Guanchos, as the Elm of Ephesus was to the ancient Greeks; and _ that in 1402, when Bethencourt visited the island, it was as large ; And 48 hollow as it is now. The most gigantic Dragon-tree that I have seen in the Canary Isles was sixteen feet in diameter; it e Lies to enjoy an eternal youth, and still bore flowers and fruits. ie When Bethencourt, the French adventurer, conquered the For- : ate Isles in the sixteenth century, the Dragon-tree of Orotava / - found to be as sacred in the estimation of the natives as was

| 5 oo of the Athenian Acropolis in the eyes of its inhabitants.

ee deseri das being of the same colossal dimensions as it has ~~ I our day. In the Torrid Zone a forest of Cxsalpina

and of Hymenza is perhaps a monument one thousand years old; and remembering that the Dragon-tree of Orotava is of very slow growth—that its appearance now differs very slightly from the same tree described four hundred years ago—we may conclude that it is extremely aged. It is, without contradiction, with the _ Baobab, perhaps the most ancient inhabitant of our planet.

“Tt is very singular,” he adds, “that the Dragon-tree has been cultivated from very remote times in the Canaries, in the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo, although it must have come from the East Indies, a fact which contradicts the assertion of those who would represent the Guanchos as an Atlantic race, entirely isolated and as having no connection with the Asiatic or Afr ™ - races.”;. The Draceneare evergreens, either of a shrubby or arboraceous | nature, having long slender stems, often columner after the aia of the palms; their trunks present marks, cicatures produced by fallen leaves; they are soft and cellular at the centre, witha circle: of stringy fibres towards the exterior. The leaves are simple, ee in some of the species, instead of the veins runnin

The structure of the stem and leaves is interesting, hen genera Clathraria and Sternbergia have been compared to 1’ c@n@, the former by Adolphe Brongniart, and the latter by: Lindley. | a The Axtsmazzs, including the Buromace®, ALIsMACE™: TANCAGENACE®, conclude the important class of Endogens* Lindley’s arrangement of the Vegetable Kingdom. i macex are made interesting to us by the Flowering Rush, the handsomest flowering plant of indigenous birth. =: The Li1arzs are distinguished by their complete mes from the ovary, by their sepals and petals being equally ee by their delicate and well-developed flowers, and by theirabun® of albumen. In the Gilliesacee they approach the Alismace® i true Lilies have some slight resemblance to the Rushes. fs of some of them,as Yucca and Dracena, arranges itself 1” indicating a tendency to approach the great class of Hx0g*

Plate VI.—Dragon’s Blood Tree (Dracæna Draco).

The Littacem, the typié¢al family of the group, are herbaceous plants, shrubs, or trees, with bulbs, tubers, rhizomes or fibrous roots. The leaves are narrow and sword-shaped, with parallel veins, only a very small number expanding into broad blades with diverging veins. The flowers are perfect—conspicuous, in spikes, heads, and clusters, umbels or panicles generally large and showy. They are all water-plants, with erect and leafless'stems, narrow leaves dilated at the base, and pedicelled perfect flowers, forming a terminal umbel, subtended by three

ein SEP membranous bracts, a perianth with six Ly \ divisions, the three outer petals slightly. wisn, LP& coloured and distinct from the sepals, which Pee. ei are larger and more highly coloured. Stamens Oa, N aes, nine, with free ovary, consisting of six car- i a pels more or less united by the ventral suture, The style is short, terminating in a lateral stigma. The Alismacee are aquatic plants, floating on ponds or growing in swampy places, distinguished from other orders of the same group by the sepals and petals being perfectly distinct from each other both in colour and position. The root is usually a perennial creeping rhizome. The flowers form BY || umbels, racemes, or panicles. The leaves ex- iL pand into a broad blade with parallel veins. ae The Water Plantains, as they are sometimes ——— ee | called, are known by their numerous carpels, and imperfect floral envelope. They are chiefly natives of Northern regions, but several Sagittarias are found in the tropics of both hemispheres.

Crass V.—DIcryoGEns. Among the Monocotyledons of Jussieu and Endogens of later botanists there is a small class of plants which are referable to — Endogens in the structure of the embryo, but which more _ Tesemble Exogens in a broad net-veined foliage, which usually — disarticulates with the stem, their small green flowers nearly Y

resembling those of Menisperms. This class Dr. Lindley con- — siders to be distinct from LEndogens on the one hand, and Exogens on the other. He calls them Dictyogens, from the netted structure of their foliage. They are distinguished as having leaves net-veined, deciduous; wood of the stem, when perennial,: arranged in a circle round the central pith, the wood of the root being exogenous, that is, without concentric circles, and the leaves falling off the stem by a clean separation, as in Exogens.

Flowers bisexual, with adhering perianth, carpels consolidated, and ) LXVI. Dioscoreacez. several seeded, including the Yam of tropical countries. s

Flowers hexaperdal, bisexual, carpels several, placenta axial, including } LXVII. Smilacez. the diuretic Sarsaparilla of South America.

Flowers three, six-petaloid, unisexual, carpels several, placenta perietal. LXVUI. Payee

Flowers tripetalous, bisexual, carpels several, axial placenta... » LXXI. Trill

Flowers bisexual, carpels solitary, simple, many-seeded, and basal i LXXII, Roxburghiace®- placenta,

” “ The DicrrocEenex, from 8:crooa, “a net,” and yweobat, - be, : _ e one ivisi are a small division of plants, partaking of Endogens on t hand, and Exogens on the other. The foliage is broad, eee - veined, and branching; but simple, and of regular outline; 2 leaves disarticulating with the stem, and in some cases the om green flowers are very nearly the same as some of the oP «ty mum among Exogens. “For these reasons,” says Dr. Lindley, have endeavoured to show that they ought to be — wes transition class, partaking somewhat of the nature of En Bae. and also of that of Exogens. In the rhizome of the" ante. ae in a com- genus” (of sarsaparilla), he adds, “the wood is di ‘ true pact circle, below a cortical integument, and smi fois | pith;in Smilax aspera the woody matter is disposed are er of a cylinder, enclosing a centre of soft cellular matter, the ve ine of the cylinder having an evident tendency to arrange t oe in lines forming rays from the centre.” :: -. dimcious HOWSr by their diccious: ae The Droscorzacex are distinguished and 7 six stamens corolla, calyx and superior They are all twining shrubs. The various species ©: Thamus and Testudinaria produce edible farinaceous tubers, bui exhibits a dangerous acridity. - we find the tropical, | Dioscoreacee In the order fleshy-rooted diccious plants, wit © i Yams, a genus of twining stems, broad alternate leaves with netted 3

of veins, bearing small green flowers in clusters; the calyx and corolla, taken together, consist of six small equal segments, or female flowers, which stand at the top of the ovary—the male flowers having six stamens, the females three styles. The seed-vessel is a thin compressed three-winged capsule, containing one or two membranous seeds. ‘The tubers of D. alatea are oblong, brown externally, white inside. Natives of the West Indies, they grow freely in the East Indies. They perish if left. in the ground after the first year, having first produced the young tuber which is to replace them. Besides the tuber, they throw out fibrous roots, which spring chiefly from about the union of the stem with the tuber, spreading in all directions. The stems are furnished with four crested leafy Wings, twining round trees and bushes, often bearing prickles near the ground. The Smumace®, a small order, consist of the Smilax, or Sarsaparilla, and Ripogonum; the former evergreen climbing shrubs (Fig. 368), a few of which are found in temperate, but the Majority in the warmer regions of both hemispheres. They are : fibrous or tuberous rooted plants, with stems often prickly, leaves alternate and petiolate, and stipu- Ite between the petioles, and -

Sessile flowers on a globular

Fig. 368.—Leaf and stalk of Smilax. _ Teceptacle. The botanical name: Smilax occurs in Greek authors, as Theophrastus and Dioscorides; _ but appliedtoseveral kinds of plants, as the yew. The only known ‘“Pecies belonging to the ~~ order was Smilax aspera, 4 a Y

species of Phaseolus, or Convolvulus, of South Europe, celebrated for its medicinal properties. The different kinds of Sarza, or Sarsaparilla, are now drawn from-natives of South America. Though the genera are limited, the species are numerous and important. The PHYLEstacE® are chiefly twining, sometimes upright shrubs, with large and showy flowers, about which little 1s known. The TrILLiAcEs are simple stemmed herbaceous plants, with tubers or rhizomes, resembling the Sarsaparillas in many respects. The Roxpurcuiace® are twining shrubs, with tuberous roots, large, showy, and somewhat fetid flowers, having reticulated and coriaceous leaves. There is but one genus and few species, all natives of the hotter parts of India. Crass VI.—GyMnoGeEns. An important class of plants, which mark a transition between the simpler forms of vegetation and plants of more complicated structure. They differ from most vasculars by the vessels of their wood having large perforations or dises; but their habits of growth are essentially exogenous, while their tissues are peculiar, themselves. Their organs are exogenous; the stem consists 0 concentric zones; a vascular system, with spiral vessels and. central pith, while they resemble Acrogens in their growth, whic - 1s continued by a terminal bud. ' The wood is thus: youngest at the circumference, and concentri¢. They have two or more cotyledons, with naked seeds. - They are without style or stigma, but so constructed that the pollen falls immediately upon the ovules—a peculiarity analogous to what occurs among the class of reptiles in the animal kingdom. Have a simple continuous stem, leaves parallel, veined, and pinnate: ] -cacleace2- feales of the cone antheriferous, including the Cyeads, Zamias, and - LXXIII. Cyead Macrozameas. Stem branched, continuous leaves, simple, and acerose, females in cones, including the Pines, Abies, J unipers, and Cypresses. LXXIV, Pinacee. Stem repeatedly branched, continuous, leaves simple, sometimes fork- ) veined. Females, solitary anthers, two-celled, opening lonyvitudinally, in- ( cluding the Yews of Europe, the Dacridiuma of New Zealand, the Podoearps of the Cape. LXXV. Taxacer. Stem repeatedly branched, jointed leaves, simple net-veined anthers, one-celled, opening by pores, inelwling two genera, the Gnetum, or Joint- f LXXVI. Gnetace®. firs, and Ephedra, natives respectively of temperate Europe and America, and of the hottest parts of India. and “ e, an The Gymnocens, from yuuvoc, “naked,” and ywesBat, to be,

from the ovules being uncovered, and the pollen communicated directly to the ovules without the intervention of stigma, style, or in this great class agree with ovary. The plants comprehended the flowering plants in having their vascular tissues complete, approaching the higher forms of vegetation in ‘the Joint-Firs, The Gnetacee combine the habit of growth of Chloranthus with the structure of their own class. With the Ferns and Club-mosses, some of the Cycadeacee agree in habit in the peculiar gyrate vernation of the leaves, and in the less perfect structure. organs, some of them having -. Of the spiral vessels and reproductive the gyrate vernation of the leaves of Ferns, along with the inflorescence peculiar to Conifers, and their habit of growth, although essentially the same as Exogens, yet resembling the of the terminal bud. In growth of Acrogens in the lengthening differ from other Exogens only their mode of increase Gymnogens by having a kind of tissue peculiar to themselves, in consequence of Which their wood presents large apparent perforations or disks, as in the Conifera. The Cycapgacr# are characterised by the cylindrical and un-of one hed growth of the trunk, and the development flowers, the male flower generally bud, and by its dicecious terminal of peltate scales. In the Zamias, the gtowing in cones composed female flowers are disposed in the same manner; in the Cycasthey —— ate placed on the toothings of abortive leaves occupying the centre of the terminal bud. _ The leaves are pinnate, having some resemblance to those of Ferns and Palms; their wood is arranged ™ numerous consecutive circles in Cycas, and also in a confused manner round the central pith, thus partaking of the peculiarities: both of the Exogens and Endogens. Mr. Robert Brown demonstrated the Similarity of conformation between the flowers of Cycas and 2 the resemblance determined Brongniart iferee, and Adolphe between them in the structure of the vessels of their wood, thus Confirming the proximity of the former to Ferns; their relation the Conifer is established by both being cotyledonous, and : h their seeds having naked ovules, “constructed,” says Dr. in both borne and manner, remarkable a similar “in mo “indley, an ordinary axis of growth, but upon the “ses not upon &

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