640 LEAFLETS oF PHILIPPINE BOTANY [Vor. II, Arr. 36 
A small tree 4 m. high or at times much less. Stem 7-12 em. 
in diain., strongly marked by annular rings, 7-12 cm. apart. Leaf- 
sheaths about 60 cm. long. Leaves 1.5 m. long, without any ap- 
preciable petiolar part. Leaflets numerous, equidistant, inserted 
at a rather acute angle, and very close set, herbaceous, glabrous, 
concolorous on both surfaces, those near the base and in the 
middle are elongate, lanceolate, plicate-2-4 costulate, acuminate, 
slightly falcate, 50-60 em. long and more; varying in breadth 
from 3 to 5 cm. according to the number of their costae: 
the two summit leaflets are broader and shorter than the others, 
pluricostulate, truncate at tip, where they are slightly toothed, 
the teeth being again cleft, and the divisions acuminate. Spadix: 
simple, cylindrical at the fiower-bearing part; this latter is 
borne on a peduncle 6—10 cm. in length, somewhat flattened, 
and about 2 cm. broad, with the female flowers very densely 
arranged in spirals round the axis, each flower borne upon 
a kind of pedicel, very short and thick, which is really a 
shortened branch of the axis, and extends to right and left 
into a slender and long branchlet, which bears the male flowers; 
the part carrying the female flowers is, during anthesis, 14 cm. 
long (in one specimen it was 6 em. thick); the branchlets 
bearing the male flowers are 12-17 cm. long, 2 mm. thick 
at the base (or slightly more), subulate at the summit, straight, 
angular, closely and alternately notched. Male flowers stand 
in pairs on the lower two thirds of the branchlets, above 
they are solitary, very minutely bracteolate, lanceolate, very 
acute, asymmetric and curved or faleate, 5 mm. long; the 
calyx is very small, the sepals are lanceolate; the corolla 
is many times as long as the calyx; stamens 6; rudimentary 
pistil subulate, about as long as the stamens. Female flowers 
very broadly ovoid-conical, 12-14 mm. broad at the base; 
the sepals very broad acute; the corolla protrudes beyond 
the calyx only by the triangular and dry point of its petals, 
which otherwise are very similar to the sepals. Ovary ovoid 
conical, acute; the stigmas thickish, subulate, projecting between 
. the petals when the male flowers are still attached to their 
= branchlets; staminodia very small, linear. Fruit ovoid, about 
. 5 em. long, and 3 cm. or a little more broad, very similar 
| to those of Areca Catechu, sessile or very closely clustered 
. round the axis and often rendered more or less angular at 
