Aug. 25, 1919] 



Palms of the Philippine Islands 



3045 



phoro nedicelliformi 2-3 mm. longo suffultus; squamis per 

 orthostichas 15 ordinatis, in medio nitide sulcatis; semine 

 globoso-oblongo, 8 mm. longo, 6 mm. crasso. 



Slender and low scandentor sprawling rattan. Sheathed 

 stem 12 to 15 mm. in diameter, the naked canes 4 to 8 mm. 

 in diameter. Leaf sheaths densely covered with blackish 

 flattened spreading or deflexed unequal spines, scattered 

 or at times more or less confluent by their bases and 

 1 to 2 cm. long, the orifice armed with spines similar to 

 the others but considerably broader and longer, that of the 

 longest 5 cm. in length. Leaves about 1 m. long without 

 the stalk; petioles 15 to 25 cm. long, somewhat flattened 

 and variously prickly, usually armed with a few long 

 straight needle like spines along the margins toward the 

 base, the rachis more or less prickly on the upper surface 

 of its basal part; underneath not strongly clawed; the 

 cirrus slender and armed at regular intervals with 3 

 to 5-nate feeble but very sharp claws. Leaflets numerous, 

 equidistant, linearly lanceolate, very gradually acuminate 

 to a very finely subulate tip, thinly chartaceous. equally 

 green on both sides; on the upper surface the mid vein 

 is almost smooth, the lateral 2 nerves on each side of 

 it are obscurely spinulous, beneath the midvein alone 

 bears short bristles from the middle to the apex, the 

 margins are very minutely and appressedly spinulous, 

 the intermediate leaflets are 25 to 28 cm. long and 12 

 to 14 mm. broad. Female spadix slender, erect, apparently 

 axillary, 25 to 50 cm. long and bearing 3 or 4 partial 

 inflorescences; the outermost spathe coriaceous, linearly 

 oblong, bidentate at the apex, armed on the dorsal side 

 with slender at times digitate spines along the central 

 line. Female flowers slender, 5 mm. long, 2 mm. through. 

 Partial inflorescences spreading, 6 to 7 cm. long, carrying 

 3 or 4 spikelets on each side, kept spreading by a 

 conspicuous axillary callus, the largest spikelets are 2.5 

 to 3.5 cm. long and carry only 4 or 5 flowers on each 

 side. The fruiting perianth is very broadly obconical 

 and half rotten. Fruits broadly ovoid to ellipsoid, equally 

 rounded at both ends, surmounted suddenly by a very 

 small acute beak, 12 mm. long. 9 mm. thick, borne on 

 pedicels formed by their respective subtrigonous invo- 

 lucrophora, the latter 2 to 3 mm. in length, kept spreading 

 by axillary caliosities and surmounted by their short 

 involucra; scales in 15 vertical series, regularly rhomboid, 

 broader than long, rather dull, neatly and relatively 

 deeply grooved along the center and uniform light or 

 dirty straw color, very regularly bordered by a linear 



