patent, falcately lanceolate from a broad adnate base, 
acuminate, sometimes connate in pairs and bifid at the tip, 
three to five-nerved, the terminal connate and toothed at the 
tip; rachis rounded at the back, keeled in front between the 
oblique bases of the leaflets ; petiole about half the length of 
the leaf-blades, rounded in the middle; sheath six inches long, 
cylindrical, smooth, split down the front, green. Spadixes 
several from the rings on the stem below the leaves, very 
shortly peduncled, nearly a foot long, bifariously branched, 
the branches stout, curving horizontally, spreading, ver- 
tically compressed. Spathe solitary, membranous, com- 
pressed, furfuraceous. Flowers in two densely packed 
series on the upper side of the branches of the spadix, to 
the margins of which they are attached in clusters of three, 
two being males placed behind a minute female; as the 
spadix lengthens, the male flowers fall away, the branches 
thicken, become flattened and yellow in age, bearing the 
drupes horizontally along the edges, the base of each sunk 
In a cup-shaped depression. Drupe two-thirds of an inch 
long, ellipsoid, orange-red.—J. D. H. 
Fig. A, Reduced figure of whole palm ; B, young branch of spadix with young 
fruit ; C, old ditto with ripe fruit :—both of the natural size. 1, Section of spadix 
and ovary ; 2, seed ; 3, vertical section of ditto; 4, embryo :—all enlarged. 
