804 The Philippine Journal of Science 1919 
ellipsoid or subfusiform, 17 to 19 mm long and broad; pericarp 
rather thin, the mesocarp formed by only two layers of slender, 
but rigid, flattened, parallel fibers....! 9. A. Vidaliana. 
b*. Male flowers smaller than in A. Vidaliana (2 mm or a little longer) ; 
stamens 6; rudimentary ovary as long as the stamens, trifid. Fe- 
male flowers ovoid, conical, narrowing to an acute point, larger 
than in A. Vidaliana, 13 to 14 mm long, 7 mm broad at the base. 
Fruit also larger, ellipsoid-elongate or subfusiform, about 3 cm long, 
ine Ne ee kk Si i, 10. A. Hutchinsoniana. 
1. ARECA CATECHU Linn. (forma COMMUNIS). 
Commonly cultivated throughout the Archipelago and occa- 
sionally spontaneous. The specimens collected in Mindanao on 
the edge of the forest at Katajan, Mount Malindang, Misamis 
Province, For. Bur. 4717 Mearns & Hutchinson were probably 
from a semiwild plant. 
ARECA CATECHU Linn. var. BATANENSIS Becc. 
Areca Catechu (non Linn.) Becc. in Philip. Journ. Sci. 3 (1908) 
Bot. 340. 
BATAN ISLANDS, Batan, Santo Domingo de Basco, Bur. Sci. 3834 Fénizx, 
along a mountain stream. 
According to the collector this is 7 to 8 m high with a trunk 
25 cm in diameter. It is therefore a plant with a relatively 
shorter but thicker trunk than the common Areca Catechu. The 
spadix is also denser than in that palm and with shorter flori- 
ferous branchlets, the latter only 10 to 12 cm in length. I have 
not seen the fruits of this apparently very local variety. 
ARECA CATECHU Linn. var. SILVATICA Becc. 
Trunk 10 to 12 m high, 10 to 15 cm in diameter. Leaves 2 
to 2.5 m long with about 30 pairs of leaflets. Spadix diffuse, 
with very elongate and slender floriferous branchlets. Male 
flowers 4 mm long, in shape exactly as in the type, with 6 
stamens and the rudimentary ovary divided into 3 acuminate 
points. Female flowers relatively narrow, tapering above to a 
conical and rather acute point, 12 to 14 mm long, 7 mm thick. 
Fruit reddish-yellow, ovoid-ellipsoid, broadly conical in the upper 
part, 4 cm long (including the perianth), 28 mm thick. Seed 
(placed almost in the center of the fruit) globular-depressed or 
slightly broader than high (16 mm high, 22 mm broad), reg- 
ularly rounded above and flattish in its basal part; embryo 
conical; rumination and network of the surface of the integu- 
ment exactly as in the type; walls of the pericarp 3 mm thick 
at the sides (in the dry fruit). Fruiting perianth 2 cm broad 
at the mouth. 
