THE PALMS OF niUTlSH INDIA AND CEYLON. -211 



Spadix axillary, loosely branched, peiululoTis, sheathed with 

 tubular persistent spathes ; bracts membranous ; bracteoles reduced 

 to hairs. Flowers bisexual, crowded in cylindric catkin-like spikes; 

 sepals orbicular or oblong ; petals ovate or lanceolate, valvate ; 

 stamens C or more, filaments short, antliers linear ; staminodes 6 or 

 more ; ovary imperfectly 3-celled ; ovules basilar. 



Fniit globose or ovoid, 1 -seeded; pericarp thin, tessellate with 

 recurved shining scales. Seed erect, top hollowed, chalaza lateral ; 

 albumen ruminate ; embryo ventral. Species about 20, Indian and 

 !Malavan. 



Cultivation in Europe. — An elegant genus of stove palms. When 

 young, they are most effective as drawing or dining room decora- 

 tions ; and Avhen in a more mature condition, they are excellent as 

 stove ornaments and for exhibition purposes. They are easily 

 cultivated in a compost of equal parts loam and vegetable mould. 

 Plenty of water is required. They are propagated by seeds. 



KORTHALSIA LACINIOSA, Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. Ill, 211 ; Kurz in 

 Journ. As. Soc. Beng. XLIII, II (1874), 207 ; Becc. Males. IT, 74 (excl. pi. 

 Salangore) ; Hooker, Fl. Brit. Ind. VI, 475. — K. scaplmjera, Kurz 1. c. 206 

 (excl. omnib. syn.), t. 20, 21 ; For. Fl. II, 513 (not of Mart.). — K. andamanen- 

 «s, Becc. Males. II, 76. — Calamosagus laciniosus, Griff, in Calc. Journ. Nat. 

 Hist. V, 23, t. 1 ; Palms Brit. Ind. 27, t. 183. 



Stems slender, ^ inch in diameter. Leaves 2-4 feet; leaflets 

 subapproximate, 4-7 inches long, rhomboid, ovate or trapezoid, 

 about as long as broad, acutely erosely toothed, terminal one broad- 

 est, fugaceously white tomentose beneath ; ochrea dilacerate, 

 sparing!}^ armed; petiole 1^-2 feet long, with straight spines, 

 angular above, slightly convex below ; rhachis and flagellum with 

 revei'sed claws. 



Spadix much branched, and covered with imbricate, smooth 

 spathes, with short, oblique, acute, suberect limbs ; branches axillary, 

 widely spreading, similarly covered with spathes, from which the 

 spikes project. Spikes 3-4 inches long, 3-4 lines broad, tawny- 

 tomentose, verj^ compact, the pedicels almost entirely enclosed. 

 Bracts rounded and imbricate, the lowermost empty, a little longer 

 than the villous bracteoles. Flowers appear to be solitary, half 

 immersed in the wool, which is exceedingly dense. Calj^x short, 

 with 3 broad, acute teeth. Corolla deeply tripartite, segments 

 oblong, spreading, exserted. Stamens 6, united to the corolla at the 

 base of its segments ; free portion of the filaments broad, very short, 

 united into a short annulus ; anthers large, linear, subsagittate. 

 Ovary occupying the corolla-tube, surrounded by the filaments, 

 covered with toothed scales, after fecundation becoming exserted. 

 Style subulate, rather long, minutely 3-toothed at the apex. 



Fiiiit "I incli long, obovoid, mucronate, with greenish, brown- 

 margined scales. Seed with a large excavation superiorly, filled 



