fectly) what he considers two other species of the genus, which 
he has named after the countries in which he found them, P. 
Khasiyana, and P. Himalayana. Of P. Assamica he observes, 
“The fruit is a good deal like that of P. elongata, judging from 
Martius’s figure, but the scales are so fimbriate that it has quite 
a woolly appearance.” Under P. Khasiyana he remarks, “ This 
would appear nearly allied to the preceding (P. Assamica), from 
which it differs in the smaller spathas, the very small calyx, with 
minute triangular teeth, the broader petals, the brown, not rust- 
coloured fruit, which is smaller, and not by any means so villous, 
the points of the scales being less fimbriate, and often deciduous.” 
Of P. Himalayana,* “This may be the male of the preceding 
' (P. Khasiyana).” The figures too, such as they are, sufficiently 
represent our plant to justify me in quoting them, though doubt- 
fully. The P. Mueller, Bl., of Java, seems to be a very diffe- 
rent species, detected also in Borneo by Mr. Thomas Lobb. 
Our present kind seems peculiar to Eastern Bengal, and differs 
from P. elongata in the long, lax-coloured (white, brown, and 
green), narrower spathas, the very long acuminated segments of 
the corolla, and in the constantly more numerous stamens. It 
is a slender Palm, attaining the length of sixty-six feet, even in 
cultivation in our Palm-stove, and though not strictly scandent, 
needing support; and Nature has admirably provided for this 
want by the curious and excessively strong, digitate spines upon 
the rachis of the frond, in shape resembling the foot of a mole. 
A singular use is made of that of the allied Plectocomia elongata 
in Java (as witnessed by the late Mr. Winterbottom), by persons 
whose duty it is to catch rogues and vagabonds. ‘To the inside 
of a forked stick a sufficient portion of the rachis is attached, 
with its strong deflexed spines; and this fork being thrust in 
such a way as to include the body of the man, the spines get a 
firm hold of the captive, either by his clothes, or what is much 
more painful, his flesh. The leaves or fronds are said to be em- 
ployed for basket-work. 
Duscr. Caudex very long, ragged with the very spinous 
sheathing bases of fallen leaves ; below, the caudex is scarcely so 
thick as a man’s ankle, but it becomes a little broader upwards ; 
the upper portion, and for a considerable length below the apex, 
leafy. Leaves or fronds often thirty feet long, but the lower half 
only is pinnated ; the rest is a flagelliform extension of the rachis, 
destitute of pinne, and the whole flattened under side of this 
rachis is beset with stout, compound, digitate spines, at greater 
or less distances, all pointing downwards: those nearest the base 
* Dr. Hooker, however, detected in Sikkim a small species of Plectocomia 
which has the appearance of being very distinct from any of these. 
