224 BECCAItl. 
mammillati; semine ovato^ vertice conico obtusiusculo, basi obliqua non 
caudiculata. Perianthium fructiferum depresse cupulare, truncatuiUj 
ad faucem non constrictum, 3 mm. altum, 7 mm. latum. 
Stem about 15 cm. in diameter. Leaves very large; leaf -sheath nearly 
1 m. in lengthy thickly coriaceous, covered externally with appressed 
radiate scales of a chestnut brown color; petiole very short or almost 
obsolete, the lowest leaflets springing from only a few centimeters above 
the mouth of the leaf -sheath; rachis very strong, 5 cm. thick at its 
base, rounded beneath in the lower portion and with a deep and broad 
furrow above, the margins of this rather sharp, in the intermediate 
portion the rachis is convex beneath and above bears the leaflets attached 
on board flattish facets on each side of a sharp salient angle. The 
leaflets are very numerous, equidistant and more or less alternate; 
in the intermediate portion of the leaf they are 6-7 cm. apart, broadly 
ensiform, very 'straight, papyraceous and very rigid, 1- or 2-costate, 
somewhat narrowed at the base, and when 1-costate 4-5 cm. in width 
and gradually acuminate into a straight symmetrical entire point, when 
2-costate 8-9 cm. in width and deeply bifid; the costse are very robust, 
close together at the base, where the blade is strongly bent downwards 
once or twice according to the number of the costas; the two surfaces 
are glabrous and finely striate with numerous secondary nerves; the 
upper surface is almost shining and polished, the lower very slightly 
paler and furnished with very small asperities (visible only under 
a lens) along the secondary nerves; the upper leaflets are gradually 
shorter but of the same description; the two terminal ones have 3-4 
ribs, are deeply parted in as many divisions as are the cosfce; each 
of these divisions is straight, acuminate and again more or less deeply 
and acutely cleft at its summit. Spadix about 1 m. long, composed' 
of a very short, robust and deflected peducular part and several florif- 
erous branchlets which are spirally inserted at different heights along 
the central axis; the branchlets are 40-50 cm. long, 5-6 mm. in width, 
almost trigonous in their basal part and flattened in the remainder, 
and bear exactly 2-seriate glomeruli of flowers; the bract subtending 
each glomerulc is very short, scale-like, lunate and with the margin entire, 
Male flowers Female flowers . Fruiting perianth 
depressed-cupular with a flat base, truncate and not contracted at its 
mouth, 3 mm. long, 7 mm. broad; its petals and sepals similar, smooth 
externally, their margins round more or less cleft. Fruits horizontally 
biseriate and very regularly set, approximate, when quite ripe, 24^25 
mm. long, 13-14 mm. thick, broadly ovoid-elliptical, tapering towards 
both ends but a little more towards the summit which ends in a conical 
mammilate rather more acute point. Seed ovoid, with a conic bluntish 
point, 16 mm. long, 11 mm. broad, the base broad, oblique and not 
