do not seem to agree with them. Blatter claimed to have 
received a letter from Fischer stating that he found in 
the Attapadi Valley of Malabar, South India, the areca 
palms growing wild in dense evergreen virgin forests. 
Beccari’s reasoning seems to be more plausible; he con- 
siders that Areca Catechu var. silvatica is very closely re- 
lated to the cultivated palm, and this variety is found 
wild only in the Philippines, and nowhere else. In addi- 
tion to this variety, there are many Areca species found 
wild in the Philippines which closely resemble the cul- 
tivated plant. On these evidences, he thinks, the culti- 
vated species probably originated in the Philippines. 
The betel palm is a slender and graceful tree with a 
strong columnar stem surmounted by a crown of pinnate 
leaves. The straight, cylindrical, greyish trunk attains a 
height of over sixty feet. From base to crown it tapers 
imperceptibly and bears regular, faint rings of scars of 
fallen leaves. The leaves are four to six feet long; the 
lower portions of the petiole expand into a broad sheath 
and cover the stem before falling off. The upper young 
pinnae are confluent and stick out straight in the center 
of the crown. The inflorescences are found on the stem 
below the leaves, in the axes of old-fallen leaves; the in- 
florescence is a spadix enclosed in a spathe and consists 
of a much branched rachis bearing male and female flow- 
ers. The fruit is ovoid or oblong according to the variety, 
about the size of an egg, two inches thick and two and a 
half inches long. Before ripening, the fruits are lustrous 
green; when quite ripe, they turn to orange-yellow. 
The pericarp is fibrous and husky. The seed, or kernel, 
consisting of hemicellulose endosperm, is the ‘‘nut’’ used 
for mastication. The tiny embryo at one end of the nut 
drops off on drying or during the process of cooking. 
The uncured (uncooked) nut is greyish brown in colour, 
and when cut, shows reddish brown lines of albumen. 
[ 187 ] 
