ol BORASSUS FLABELLIFORMIS. 
dric, bowing aments, most beautifully imbricated with innu- 
merable scales. 
Scales.broad wedge-form, retuse, adhering by their lateral margins 
to the keel, or back of the next above, (when the ament 
stands erect) forming a cavity for a fascicle of about ten or 
twelve small, yellow, sessile, flowers ; seldom more than one 
expands at a time, beginning with the uppermost, so that there 
is a long succession of them. 
Bractes numerous, wedge-form, concave, surrounding the bundle 
of flowers. 
Perianth proper, hid within the scales of the ament, three-leaved: 
Leaflets wedge-form, concave. 
Corol elevated from the calyx, on a small, club’d, triangular, pedi- 
cel, which is of sufficient length to raise the flower above the 
scales; Petals three, oval, concave, points incurvate, spread- 
ing. 
Filaments six, very short. Anthers linear. 
FEMALE FLOWERS on a different tree. 
Spathe compound as in the male. 
Spadix is generally composed of only two branches. 
Scales annular, imbricated, one-flower'd, splitting in various places, 
as the fruit increases in size, smooth; those nearest the base 
and the apex sterile. . 
Pertanth proper, or Corol eight or twelve leaved: leaflets unequal, 
concave, firm, leathery, closely embracing the germ, perma- 
nent, and, with the fruit, increasing in size. 
Filaments six to nine, united into a ring which surrounds the base 
of the germ. 
Anthers oval, sterile. 
Germ globular. 
Style none. 
Stigma a scaly navel as in Ficus, with gencrally four small stria, 
which run from them, each ending in a dark-brown colour’d 
speck. 
Drupe subglobular, with the apex flattened, size of an infant's head, 
smooth: skin leathery, dark-brown, shaded with dark yel- 
low ; inwardly replete with soft, yellow pulp, intermixed with 
tough, straw-colour’d hair. 
Nuts from two to four, (generally three) inverse-broad-hearted, a 
little compress’d, of a tough horny substance, covered with 
much of the before mentioned hair, perforated in the notch of 
the ‘apex. 
Nucleus bears the general form of a nut, apex (not the base) three 
lob’d: on each side groov'd from the base of the apex; in 
substance somewhat cartilaginous, of a clear whitish colour ; 
in the centre there is a transverse slit, which, on drying, en- 
larges into a cavity. 
This, next to Caryota urens, grows to be the largest Palm on this 
coast. It seems to thrive equally well in all soils, and situations ; 
but when the growth of high land, at a distance from the sea, the 
wood is much stronger, and every way better. It flowers during 
the beginning of the hot season. 
When the seeds are young they are a pleasant, cooling jelly, 
much eaten by the natives, and the addition of a little sugar and 
rose-water makes them extremely palatable ; the pulp of the ripe 
fruit is also eaten by the natives. 
The tree, during the first part of the hot season, yields a pretty 
large quantity of Toddy (palm-wine), which is thus procured. The 
spadix, either male or female, is cut through just below where it 
begins to be divided into branches, and the juice is received into 
earthen pots suspended for that purpose; but it is necessary that a 
BORASSUS FLABELLIFORMIS. 52 
small bit of the extremity of the divided spadix should be daily cut 
off, to remove the contracted, dry extremities of the vessels, and fa- 
cilitate the flow of fresh juice. The Toddy is either drank fresh 
drawn from the tree, or fermented for distillation ; or is boiled into 
a coarse kind of sapa, or rob, called Jaggary. 
The wood of this palm, near the circumference, when of suffi- 
cient age (one hundred years or thereabout), is remarkably hard, 
black, heavy, and durable, and is universally used for rafters, in 
pent-roofed houses, for which purpose it is certainly the first wood 
in India. The centre is soft and spongy, containing little else than 
a coarse kind of farinaceous matter, intermixed with some soft, 
white, woody fibres, and is cut out; as the black, exterior, hard 
part only is employed. 
By the natives, the leaves are universally used for writing upon, 
with an iron style, or bodkin. They are also employed for thatch- 
ing houses, for making small baskets, mats, kc. and are formed into 
large fans, called vissaries. 
Explanation of the Figures in: Plate 71. 
Fig. 1. Four branches of the spadix with their respective spathes, 
the whole reduced much below the natural size. 
2. A portion of an ament, magnified. 
. The fascicle of unexpanded flowers, with the scale torn 
Go 
open to show their situation, magnified. 
4. Two views of a flower. 
Plate 72. 
Fig. 1. The spathes and spadix, smaller than nature. 
2. A portion of the same cut transversely. 
3. A flower, natural size. 
4. The same with the petals removed, shewing the sterile sta- 
mens. 
. The sterile stamens separated. 
. Sections of two germs. 
. A section of the ripe fruit. 
Opn Str SO) oor 
. One of the nuts with its hair and filament, which commu- 
nicates with the stigma. 
9, The same deprived of its hair. 
10. A perpendicular section of the same, which exposes the 
embryo at the apex. 
73. COCOS NUCIFERA. 
Linn. spec. plant. 1658. 
Nany-cadum, or Cobry-tshittoo of the Telingas. 
Tenga of the Tamuls. 
Spathe universal, axillary, cylindric-oblong, tapering equally to- 
wards each end, bursting longitudinally its whole length ; tex- 
ture somewhat woody, inside perfectly smooth, outside slightly 
striated lengthwise, two or three feet long. 
Spadix nearly erect, very branchy, winding. 
Branches simple, winding much, bowing a little. 
Male Flowers numerous, above the female, approximated, very ses- 
sile. 
Calyx three-leaved: leaflets small, broad-hearted, firm, fleshy. 
Petals three, as in the Genera plantarum. 
Female Flowers generally one, though sometimes none, near the base 
of each ramification of the spadix, and accompanied by a male 
flower on each side. 
