2048 



A TEXTBOOK OF THEORETICAL BOTANY 



bearing at the top a crown of large leaves, usually few in number but of 

 great area. Leaf scars or old leaf bases persist even to the foot of the stem. 



The inflorescence is usually a panicle, sometimes a compound spike, 

 and may be enveloped by a spathe. 



The flowers (Fig. 1987) are small, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite, 

 monoecious or dioecious and are individually not very conspicuous. 



The calyx (Fig. 1988) is made up of three sepals, separate or connate, 

 imbricate or open in the bud. 



A B 



Fig. 1988. — A, Geonoma uitti^iana. Female flower with corona of fused staminodes. 

 B, Chamaerops. Male flower in \ertical section. {After Drude.) 



The corolla consists of three petals which are either separate or 

 connate and are valvate in the male flowers or imbricate in the female 

 flowers. 



The androecium consists usually of six, occasionally numerous, 

 stamens. The anthers possess two loculi and open by longitudinal slits. 

 The pollen is smooth or rarely echinulate. 



The gynoecium may be absent or rudimentary in male flowers. In the 

 female flowers it may be made up of a number of separate carpels, or three 

 may unite to form an ovary. Each carpel or loculus contains a single 

 pendulous or erect ovule. 



The fruit is either a berry or a drupe. The epicarp is often fibrous and 

 is sometimes covered by reflex scales. 



The seed is free or adherent to the endocarp. The embryo is small 

 and is enclosed in a large or small quantity of endosperm. 



The family contains about 200 genera and nearly 1,500 species which 

 are widely distributed throughout the tropics. A few occur in warm tem- 

 perate regions. 



Anatomically the Palms show^ few peculiarities. Despite their size, the 

 stem does not develop secondary thickening, the increase in girth being 

 effected merely by expansion of the apical meristem, producing numbers of 

 vascular bundles and the ground parenchyma which separates them 



Every Palm passes through a juvenile phase during which there is very 

 little elongation of the stem, but there is a continuous increase in the 

 diameter of the apical meristem. Only when the full specific diameter has 

 been reached does the stem begin to elongate and thereafter it remains 

 practically columnar. 



