102 CXLYII. PALM& (WRIGHT). [ Phenix. 
4. PHGINTIX, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 921. 
Male flower oblong or lanceolate. Calyx cupular, 3-toothed. Petals 
3, slightly connate at the base, valvate. Stamens 6 ; filaments connate 
at the base; anthers linear-oblong, dorsifixed. Rudiment of ovary 
smallor none. Female flower globose. Calyx asin the male. Petals 
3, rotundate, concave, broadly imbricate. Staminodes 6, connate. 
Carpels 3, distinct ; stigma sessile; ovule erect. Fruit drupaceous ; 
stigmatic scar terminal. Seed deeply grooved on the ventral side; 
albumen cartilaginous; embryo minute, dorsal. — Unarmed trees. 
Stems cylindrical. Leaves pinnate; leaflets lanceolate, induplicate. 
Spadix interfoliaceous, branched. Spathe solitary. Flowers small, 
yellow, dicecious. 
Species about 12, dispersed through Tropical and Subtropical Asia and Africa. 
Fruit fleshy . 4 : : . : ° . 1. P. dactylifera. 
Fruit dry. 
Endocarp hard. Seed slightly pointed above, 7 by 
Aphine : : : 9 4 : . 2. P. abyssinica. 
Endocarp thin. Seed rounded above, 5-7 by 2}— 
olin ~ ° . ’ . : . 3. P. reclinata, 
1. P. dactylifera, Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. i. 1188. Stem tall, straight, 
cylindrical, soboliferous at the base, scaly in the younger parts with 
the remains of leaf-bases. Leaves 10 ft. or more long, glaucous; 
leaflets lanceolate-linear, acuminate, somewhat 4-ranked, the anticous 
often distichous, irregularly and remotely aggregate, the central 
longest. Female flower globose. Corolla twice as long as the calyx. 
Drupe long, elliptic, variously coloured, usually more than 1 in. long; 
pericarp thick, fleshy, saccharine.—Gertn. Fruct. i. 23, t. 9, fig. 2; 
Forsk. Fl. Atgypt.-Arab. exxvi.; Lam. Encycl. ii. 261, and IIl. t. 
893, fig. 1; Hook. Journ. Bot. 1834, 212; Delile, Fl. Egypte, 169, 
t. 62; Mart. in Miinch. gel. Anzeig, 1838, 638, and 1839, 38, and Palm. 
ili, 257, t. 120, t. X, fig. 1, t. Z, i. fig. A; Kunth, Enum, iii. 255; 
Kirk in Journ. Linn. Soc. ix. 233; Becc. Malesia, iii. 355, t. 43, figs. 
a Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. B. 12, C. 130; Drude in Engl. Jahrb. xxi. 
Upper Guinea. Senegambia: Fort St. Louis, Brunner (ex Martius). Isle 
of Goree ; Porto Prana, Brunner (ex Martius). 
Wile Land. British Somaliland: Waggar Mountains, Mrs. Lort-Phillips 
Lower Guinea. Congo and Benguela (ex Martius). 
Mozamb. Dist. Portuguese East Africa: “On the Zambesi there is one 
solitary tree outside the stockade of Sena,” Kirk. German East Africa: Kiliman 
jaro, up to nearly 6000 ft., Johnstoz, 197! British Central Africa: Nyasaland 
on the Upper Shire at Matope, Scott-Elliot, 8494! 
Owing to this species having been cultivated throughout Tropical Africa from 
remote times, it is difficult to decide where it is truly indigenous. 
2. P. abyssinica, Drude in Engl. Jahrb. xxi. 110, 119. Habit 
of P. dactylifera, Linn. Lower leaflets reduced to spines; upper 
lanceolate, more or less aggregate, 10 in. by 4 in. Calyx of male 
