Pandaneae
A natural order of curious, erect or climbing trees or shrubs, di-or tri-chotomously branched, the annulate trunk or branches emitting aerial roots; they are all tropical or sub-tropical, mostly natives of the East African Islands, the Indian Archipelago, and the Pacific Islands; a few are found in the Asiatic and African continents, one in the West Indies, and another in New Zealand. Flowers dioecious, each sex densely crowded on a simple or compound, axillary or terminal, sessile or pedunculate spadix, accompanied by herbaceous or coloured, persistent or deciduous spathes; males on a branched or thyrsoid spadix with numerous stamens and filaments, with single two-or four-celled anthers; females with one or many-celled ovaries, free, or united in parcels, solitary or numerous ovules, and a sessile stigma. Fruit either woody drupes collected in parcels, or berries; seeds minute, albumen densely fleshy. Leaves clustered, spirally and trifariously disposed, very long-linear and sheathing at base, acuminate, recurved, keeled, concave, rigidly coriaceous, the margins and keel spinulose or serrated, very rarely unarmed, at length totally deciduous; prickles often recurved, or the lower ones recurved and the upper ones incurved. The species, numbering about eighty, have no great economic value; they are classed under two genera: Freycinetia and Pandanus.