616 MONOECIA HEXANDRIA. JlreCtt, 



Arab, Fooliul. 



Beny. Gooa. 



Telinrf. Poka chelloo. 



Where this tree grows wild I cannot say from my own ob- 

 servation, but it is cultivated in all the warmer parts of Asia, 

 and is in flower most part of tiie year. It is the most beauti- 

 ful palm we have in India. The trunk grows remarkably 

 straight, often from forty to fifty feet high, and in general 

 about twenty inches in circumference, equally thick in every 

 part, and smooth, but the tree is so well known, and fully de- 

 scribed, that I should not have thought of mentioning it, had 

 I not found that its family character was imperfectly known. 



Male lAwA female flowers are in the same spadix. Spathe 

 double. Spadix very branchy. Male flowers very numer- 

 ous, about the female ones, sessile, without bractes. Cali/x 

 one-leaved, small, three-cornered, three-parted, smooth. Pe- 

 tals three, oblong, rigid, striated, smooth, many times longer 

 than the perianth. Filaments generally three, very short 

 and broad, two-parted, inserted round the base of the abor- 

 tive germ. Anthers always six, sagittate. Germ no other 

 than a short culm, which splits into three short, obtuse seg- 

 ments. Female flowers one, two, or three, at or near the 

 base of each ramification of the spadix, sessile without brac- 

 tes. Calyx three-leaved ; leaflets cordate, rigid, fleshy, per- 

 manent, Corol three-petalled, like the calyx, and perma- 

 nent. Nectary membranaceous, generally six-toothed, em- 

 bracing closely the base of the germ. Germ oval. Style 

 scarcely any. Stigmas three, short, triangular. The drupe 

 is well described, and delineated by Goertner, vol. i. ;>. 19. t. 

 7./. 2. 



On the Malabar coast the common black pepper vine is 

 usually trained up to this tree, which renders it more useful 

 in those parts, than any other. 



2. A. Dicksonii. Roxb. 



Fronds pinnate ; leaflets ribbed. Avith prcemorse ragged 



