•272 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 1891. 



Plantarum gives a full description of the genus, under which it is remarked 

 that 9 species are known as inhabitants of Tropical Africa, Arabia, and 

 Madagascar. Gsertner, in his " Be Friictibus-et-seminibus Plantarum," gives a 

 description and illustration of the seed of Hyphcene coriacea, which in all respects 

 corresponds well with the Indian form, and of the entire fruit of H. crinita, 

 which corresponds with the Sewree form. Baron Ferd Von. Mueller in his Select 

 Extra-tropical Plants mentions the following kinds : Hyphcene Argun, Mart., Nubia 

 to 21° N. L. ; H. coriacea., Gcertn., Equatorial Eastern Africa, the dichatomous 

 Palm of the sea coast regions. It attains a height of 80 feet ; H. crinita, Gcertn. 

 (H. thebaica, Mart.) The ginger-bread palm or Doum-palni ; Abyssinia, 

 Nubia, Arabia and Egypt, as far as 31° N. L. and southwards to the Zambesi, 

 Nyassa and Sofala. In Arabia to 28° N. L. (Schweinfurth.) up to the plateau 

 of Abyssinia (Drude). It is much branched, and attains a height of about 30 

 feet. The mealy husk of the fruit is edible. Grows away from the sea. 

 H. ventricosa, Kirk, Zambesi, loftier than the other species, stem turgid 

 towards the middle, fruit large. 



Major Casati in his "Ten years in Equatoria" frequently refers to the 

 Doum-palm, Palma Bourn, in the first part of his book, evidently referring to 

 H. thebaica, while having travelled further south and approaching the sea- 

 coast he mentions Cucifera trees, evidently referring to another species (Cucifera 

 is a synonym for Hyphcene), probably H coriacea. 



The two or three species now before us are the wild Doum-palm from Mahuva 

 and Oomrud and the cultivated Doum-palm from Sewree Cemetery and seed- 

 lings from Aden. 



The first of these is distinguished by large fan- shaped, flat, simply folded- 

 leaves, borne on strong yellow leaf stalks, edged with distant black hooked 

 spines, by very large irregularly pear-shaped fruits, near the stalk furnished 

 with two small protuberances, probably formed by the two undeveloped ovules, 

 and thus approaching the allied 3-seeded Borassus flabelliformis. The rind of 

 the fruit is reddish -brown, shining, warted, fleshy, and encloses a very thick 

 layer of. fibrous matter covering the kernel. The tunic catkins ;ire long and 

 whip-like, more or less bent, and generally appear in bundles of 2, 3 or 4, 

 rarely more. This kind must probably be referred to Hyphcene coriacea, Gcertn. 



The species of which a male and female tree are found in the Sewree Cemetery 

 is mentioned in the Supplement to Dalzell and Gibson's Flora under the name 

 of Hyphcene coriacea, Sprg., and II. thebaica and H. crinita are cited as 

 synonyms. It is stated to be the Doum-palm of the upper Thebaid, and 

 so far fairly well corresponds with the scanty information contained in Lindley's 

 Treasury of Botany, where a plate is given, which, however, is anything but a 

 good illustration. The leaves of this plant differ from the preceding kind by 

 the recurved midrib, giving the leaf a peculiar graceful shape, by the fibres 

 between the divisions of the leaf being darker coloured, and by the hooked 

 spines of the yellow leaf stalk being larger and less distant. The male catkins 



