214 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Tol. XXV. 



Names. — Takri Bet (Nep.) ; Raiml (Lepclia) ; Rattan Palm 

 (Engl.). 



Stem 1 inch in diameter. Leaves 6-8 feet long, including the 

 flagellum ; leaflets 12-16 inches long, \-l\ inch broad, alternate, 

 linear-lanceolate, very acuminate, narrowed into filiform tips, 

 2-3 inches long, with five pi'ominent veins on the upper surface, 

 margins with short, sub-appressed spinescent teeth ; rhachis scurfy ; 

 the pinniferous part of the petiole armed below with stout, hooked 

 prickles, confluent at the base ; prickles in increased number on the 

 flagellum ; petiole unarmed or margins spiny ; sheath tubular, 

 scurfy ; spines whorled. 



Spadices erect ; branches 2-3 feet long, covered with rust 

 coloured tomentum ; spathes almost stem-clasping, conduplicate, 

 coriaceous-scarious ; spathels 1-2 inches long, rhomboid, acute ; 

 spikelets o-7-flowered, scurfy, tomentose. Male flowers supported 

 by 3 narrow, bristle-pointed, scarious bracts, sub-distichous ; 

 calyx cupular, with 3 short, rounded teeth ending in bristles ; 

 petals :^ inch long, ovate-lanceolate. Stamens 6, united at the 

 base into a short cup ; filaments stoutish, subulate ; anthers large, 

 linear-oblong, obtusely sagittate. Female flowers ? 



Fruit \ inch in diameter, depressed -globose ; scales very small, 

 fimbriate, tips appressed. 



Habitat. — Sub-Himalayan ranges about Darjeeling, 4-7,000 

 feet, common. * 



PLECTOCOMIA MACROSTACHYA, Kurz. in Journ. Asiat. Soc. 

 Beng. XLIII, II, 207, t. 16, 17 ; For. Fl. II, 514 ; Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI, 

 478 ; Brandis Ind. Trees, 650. 



Name. — Kyeinbam (Burm.). 



An evergreen lofty climber, all parts glabrous. Leaves pinnate, 

 the petiole and rhachis spiny, spines straight, up to ^ inch 

 long ; leaflets (median ones) somewhat approximate by pairs, 

 linearlanceolate, -^-2 feet long, long-acuminate, white-powdery 

 beneath, 3-ribbed, 2 of the ribs marginal, coriaceous, but rather 

 flaccid. 



Branches of male spadix 4-5 feet long, pendulous, closely 

 covered with broadly obovate distichous imbricating spathels, 

 brown with black border, in the axils of which are the spikelets, 

 shorter than bracts with alternate, distichous flowers. Male 

 flowers : calyx wide, cup-shaped, about 1 line deep, shortly 

 3-toothed, the teeth acute, bordered, especially in their sinuses, by a 

 dense, brown, wooll}^ tomentum ; petals rigid, falcate, lanceolate, 

 sharply acuminate, about ^ inch long or somewhat longer, sulcate 

 outside; stamens 6, 



Drupes |-1 in diameter. 



