51 MILLINGTONIA SIMPLICIFOLIA. 
smooth, veins simple, and parallel ; 6-12 inches long, by 
3-4 broad. 
Panicles terminal, large oblong, rather open; composed of many, 
alternate, decompound, long, patent, brown-villous branches 
Flowers numerous, sessile, very minute yellow. 
Bractes oblong, clothed with ferruginous pubescence. 
Calyx 3-leaved, (independent of two or three minute villous 
bractes, like a calycle ;) leaflets ovate, smooth, permanent. 
Petals 3, broad-ovate, waved, twice the length of the calyx, 
permanent. 
Nectary: a variously lobed, smooth scale from the base of each 
petal on the inside; they form a dome over the pistillum; and 
round the base of the germ is found a flat, 3-angular body, 
with its angles bidentate. 
Filaments 2, opposite, incurved, inserted without the interior, 
triangular nectary, bifid. nner lamina supports on its apex 
a patelliform receptacle, on which the two-lobed yellow 
anther rests. Exterior lamina bifid ; segments subulate and rise 
rather higher than the anthers. 
Germ superior, two-celled, with 2 ovula in each, attached to the 
thickened middle of the partition. Style single, short. Stigma 
obscurely two-lobed. 
Drupe size of a pea, nearly round, succulent, smooth, black, one- 
celled. 
Nut conform to the drupe, rarely more than one-celled, hard ; 
cell somewhat angular ; the second or abortive cell always 
traceable. 
Seed solitary, concave on the side next the abortive cell of the 
nut, hemispheric on the other. Integument single, mem- 
branaceous: 
Albumen none. 
Embryo curved, and doubled, as in the Convolvulacee, with curved 
inferior radicle. 
EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES. 
Fig. 1. The end of a branchlet in flower ; natural size. 
2. Back and front views of a flower. 
3. One of the petals with its nectarial scale separated: 
4, Interior and exterior views of the stamina separated, and 
their anthers also removed, the better to show their 
receptacles, and the two-horned exterior lamina of the 
filaments. 
. The interior triangular nectary and calyx. 
. Sections of the germ; all, except Ist, much magnified. 
The drupe ; natural size. 
. Vertical section of the nut; much magnified. 
onrn un 
255 and 256. CGORYPHEA TALIERA R. 
Fronds subrotund, palmate-pinnatified, plaited. Segments forty 
pair; margins of the channel of the stipes armed. Inflorescence 
pyramidal, length of the trunk of the tree. Spadix from the centre 
of the leaves. 
Tali, its Sanscrit name. 
Talier, of the Bengalese. 
Tarra, or Tahreet, of the Hindoos. 
CORYPHEA TALIERA. 52 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This elegant, stately palm, is a native of Bengal, though scarce 
in the vicinity of Calcutta. Flowering time the beginning of the 
hot season; seed ripens about nine or ten months thereafter. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Trunk perfectly straight, about thirty feet high, and, as near as the 
eye can judge, equally thick throughout, of a dark brown 
colour, and somewhat rough with the marks left by the 
impression of the fallen leaves. 
Fronds palmate, pinnatified, plaited, subrotund. Leaféets, or divi- 
sions of the frond, united rather more than half way, 
numerous, (generally from 80 to 100) linear, lanceolate, 
pointed until broken by the wind, or otherwise ; polished 
on both sides; a strong, somewhat four-sided nerve runs 
their whole Jength; general length about six feet, greatest 
breadth about four inches. The thread which forms part of 
the Linnzan specific character of Corypha umbraculifera, is 
sometimes present, sometimes wanting ; at best, such perish- 
able marks deserve no notice. 
Stipes from five to ten feet long, remarkably strong: upper side 
deeply channelled, with the sharp margins thereof armed 
with numerous, short, strong, dark-coloured, polished, com- 
pressed spines. 
Spathes just as numerous as the primary and secondary ramifica- 
tions in the spadix, all are smooth, and obtuse. 
Spadix superdecompound, issuing, in the month of February, from 
the apex of the tree, and centre of the fronds, forming an 
immense, diffuse, ovate panicle, of about twenty or more feet 
in height, so that the height of the whole tree from the 
ground to the top of the spadix, is now about fifty feet. 
Primary branches alternate, round, spreading, nearly horizontal, 
with their apices ascending. 
Secondary ramifications alternate, bifarious, compressed, drooping, 
recurved, soon dividing into numerous, variously curved, 
smaller, subcylindric branchlets, covered with innumerable, 
small, white, odorous, subsessile flowers. 
Calyx beneath, minute, obscurely 3-toothed. 
Corol. 
many times larger than the calyx. No nectary. 
Stem. Filaments six, nearly of the length of the petals, at the base 
Petals three, oblong, concave, fleshy, smooth, expanding, 
broad, and in some measure united. Anthers ovate. 
Pistil. Germ above, 3-lobed with the embryo of a distinct seed 
ineach. Style shorter than the stamina. Stigma simple. 
Drupes from one to three, conjoined, though one 1s by far the most 
common, and then the rudiments of the other two are 
present; they are, singly, quite round, about the size of 
a crab-apple; when ripe wrinkled, and of a dark olive, or 
greenish yellow colour. The pulp is but in small propor- 
tion, and yellow when the fruit is ripe. 
Seed solitary, round, attached to the base of the drupe, of a white 
colour and uniform horny substance, with a small cavity in 
the centre. 
Embryo lodged in the very apex ; this circumstance alone is 
sufficient to distinguish it from Gertner’s Corypha umbra- 
culifera. 
