JSlipa?^ Palmes. 325 



petiole very stout ; sheath smooth with fibrous netted margins; 

 spadix 10-12 ft. long, the branches simple, forming a dense 

 tassel drooping from the very stout short ped. ; spathes 

 •closely embracing the ped. of the spadix ; male fl. cylindric 

 when closed, \ in. long, pet. coriaceous, concave ; anth. acumi- 

 nate ; fr. |-f in. diam., pericarp acrid ; seeds i or 2. 



Low country, chiefly in the moist region, to about 3000 ft. ; common. 

 Fl. March (.'') ; fr. red or yellow. 



Throughout Tropical Asia. 



Though encouraged and protected, I believe this to be a real native 

 "here. Yields toddy copiously. The sago-like pith forms a valuable 

 article of food, and a coarse sugar is made from the toddy. The wood, 

 which is silicious, is useful for building purposes. Leaves yield the 

 Icittul fibre of commerce. 



5. IfZPA, Wiirmb. 



Rootstock stout, prostrate, branched; clothed with the 

 ■sheaths of old leaves, leafing and flowering at the ends of the 

 branches; 1. pinnatisect, leaflets linear-lanceolate, sides re- 

 duplicate in vernation ; spadix short, terminal, erect in fl., 

 branches and ped. stout, sheathed with spathes ; fl. monoecious, 

 male in catkin-like branches of the spadix, fem. crowded in a 

 terminal head, perianth glumaceous; male fl. surrounded with 

 setaceous bracteoles; sep. linear with broad truncate inflexed 

 tips, imbricate; pet. smaller; stam. 3, fil. connate in a very 

 short column, anth. elongate, basifixed, pistillode o; fl. fem. 

 much larger than the male, perianth-segm. 6, irregularly dis- 

 posed, rudimentary, staminodes o; carpels 3, connate, tips free 

 with an oblique stigmatic line, ovules erect ; fr. a large 

 globose syncarp, of many obovoid, hexagonal, i -celled, 1 -seeded 

 carpels with pyramidal tips, pericarp fleshy and fibrous, endo- 

 •carp spongy and floury; seed erect, grooved on one side, testa 

 coriaceous viscid within, hilum broad, endosperm horny, 

 equable, hollow, embryo basilar, obconic. — Monotypic. 



N. fruticans, Wnrm. m Verh. Bat. Genootsch. i. 349 (1779). Gin- 

 l)ol, S. 



Moon, Cat. 66. Thw. Enum. 327. C. P. 3333. 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 424. Griff. Ic. PI. Asiat. tt. 244-7. 



Rootstock 1 1 ft. diam., rooting along the lower surface; 

 1. very many, erect and recurved, 15 ft. long and upwards, 

 petiole 4-5 ft., very stout, sheath short, leaflets innumerable, 

 shortly decurrent on the rhachis, 4-5 ft. long, bright green 

 above, glaucous and 3-keeled beneath, tip subulate, midrib 



