324 Palmecr. {Cmyota^. 



spadix 2 ft. long, unarmed, ped. very stout, branches drooping; 

 male fl. \ in. long, densely imbricate; sep. very small ; pet. 

 acute, striate; stam. 9, fil. short, broad, fleshy, anth. linear; 

 fern. fl. scattered, \ in. diam.; sep. thick, forming a broadly 

 3-lobed cup; pet. hardly longer than the sep., coriaceous, 

 broader than long ; fr. globose, h in. diam., black or purple. 



Steep forests in moist region, 1-5000 ft. ; rather common. Fl. Feb.,, 

 March. 



Endemic. 



The prickly stems are a great hindrance in climbing the steep hill- 

 sides where this grows. The fruit is exactly like large black currants. 



4. CARVOTA,^ Limt. 

 Tall unarmed palms, trunk annulate, flowering when full 

 grown from the axils of the leaves beginning with the upper 

 and thence successively downward, a male and fern, spadix 

 alternately, then dying ; 1. iow, large, broad, bipinnatisect or 

 decompound, leaflets cuneiform, sessile, sides reduplicate in 

 vernation, bases swollen ; spathes 3-5, incomplete, tubular; 

 spadix interfoliar, shortly peduncled, much fastigiately 

 branched, branches slender, pendulous ; fl. crowded, male 

 solitary, or binate with an interposed fem. ; sep. orbicular, 

 imbricate; pet. much longer, linear-oblong, connate at the 

 base, valvate, stam. very many, fil. short, anth. long, pistillode 

 o; fl. fem. subglobose, sep. orbicular, imbricate, pet. short,. 

 staminodes 3 or 6; ov. obovoid, trigonous, 3-celled, stigma 

 3-lobed, ovule erect; fr. globose, 1-3-secded, stigmas terminal,, 

 sarcocarp full of raphides; seed erect, embryo dorsal in 

 ruminated endosperm. — Sp. 14 ; 3 in Fl. D. Ind. 



C< urensjt L. Sp. PL 1189 (1753). XCitul, S. Tippillpana, T. 



Herm. Mus. 44. Burm. Thes. 186. Fl. Zeyl. n. 396. Thw. Enum. 

 329. Moon, Cat. 64. C. P. 3742. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 422. Rheede, Hort. Mai. i. t. 11. Gaertn. Fruct. i. 

 t. 7, f- 3- 



Trunk 40-60 ft. by i ft. or more diam., C}-lindric, annulate, 

 not sobolifcrous ; 1. 18-20 by 10-15 ft., primary divisions 

 5-6 ft., arched and drooping, leaflets 4-8 in., fascicled or alter- 

 nate, cuneiform, obliquely truncate, irregularly serrate- 

 toothed on the truncate margin, upper margin produced 

 beyond the leaflets into a tail, flabellatcly veined, quite 

 glabrous, bright green, shining, margins at the base recurved, 



* The Greek name for a kind of date. 



t From the very hot burning taste of the fruit. 



