Areca.] PalmecB. 321 



I. ARECA,^ Li7in. 



Trunk slender, erect, annulate ; 1. pinnatisect, leaflets 



reduplicate-plicate ; spadix infrafoliar, branched, monoecious, 



branches spiciform, pendulous, with many solitary male fl. 



on the branches of the spadix, and few fern, at the base; spathes 



3 or more, caducous, upper bracteiform, bracts o or minute ; 



male fl. minute, compressed, sep. small, pet. longer, lanceolate, 



valvate ; stam. 3 or 6, hypogynous, anth. basifixed ; fem. fl. 



much larger, sep. and pet. orbicular, imbricate, pet. with 



valvate tips ; ov. i -celled, stigmas 3, sessile, ovule basal, erect; 



fr. ovoid or oblong, stigmas terminal ; seed sub-hemispheric, 



base truncate, endosperm ruminate, embryo basilar. — Sp. 



about 25 ; 4. in F/. B. Ind. 



Trunk 40-80 ft I. A. CATECHU. 



Stem 8-12 ft 2. A. CONCINNA. 



I. A. Catechu,! L. Sp. PI. 1189 (1753). Puwak, S. Kamu- 

 kai, T. 



Herm. Mus. 51. Burm. Thes. 182. Fl. Zeyl. n. 392. Moon, Cat. 66. 

 Thw. Enum. 327. C. P. 3471. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 405. Roxb. Cor. PI. t. 75. Ann. Jard. Buitenz. i. t. i 

 and 3, f 2. 



All parts glabrous ; trunk 40-80 ft. by 8-16 in. diam., 

 straight, cylindric, of equal thickness throughout, grey ; 1. 

 4-6 ft., erecto-patent and recurved, leaflets numerous, crowded, 

 1-2 ft., linear to linear-lanceolate, many-veined, lower finely 

 acuminate, upper prsemorse or bifid, uppermost confluent; 

 sheath long, smooth; spathes simple, compressed, glabrous; 

 spadix infrafoliar, very shortly peduncled, 12-18 in. long or 

 more, branched paniculately at the base, rhachis short, stout, 

 compressed, smooth, branches filiform, terminating in pen- 

 dulous male spikes ; male fl. small, more or less distichous, 

 sep. 3, minute, triangular ; pet. much longer, oblong, rigid, 

 striate ; fil. very short, triangular, anth. sagittate, pistillode 

 3-fid; fem. fl. 1-3 at the bases of the branches or in their 

 axils, much larger than the male, sep. | in. long, ovate- 

 cordate, obtuse ; pet. like the sep., but rather longer, stami- 

 nodes forming a 6-toothed membrane; fr. ii-2 in. long, 

 ovoid, orange or scarlet ; seed ovoidly hemispheric, about f in. 

 diam. 



* The name of the seed in Malabar, Adakka, introduced by the 

 Portuguese. 



t Name from a resinous extract from the seed, resembling that pro- 

 duced by Acacia Catechu., in Bengal. 



PART IV. Y 



