o 



26 Palmece. [Phcenin. 



scurfy; spadix 4-7 ft, ped. 3-4 ft.; male fl. very small, sep. 

 linear with clavate inflexed tips, pet. similar but narrower ; anth. 

 linear; ov. densely crowded, cuneate-obovate, angled, top 

 pyramidal ; fr. i ft. diam., nodding, carpels densely packed' 

 on a globose, areolate receptacle 4-6 in. long, compressed, 

 broadly cuneiform, dark brown, crown 3- or more-angled ; 

 seed as large as a hen's egg. 



Mouth of rivers on South-west Coast ; very rare. Kalutara, Gindura 

 River, near Galle. Fl. October. 



Sunderbunds, Burma, throughout Malaya to Queensland ; not in 

 Peninsular India. 



This is called the vvater-cocoanut, and looks quite like one with its stem 

 submerged. This common Malayan plant seems to reach its western limit 

 here. The floating fruits are carried out to sea by the rivers. 



6. PHCENZX, Linn. 

 Tall or short, dioecious palms ; 1. pinnatisect, sides of leaflets 

 induplicate in vernation; spadices usually several, interfoliar, 

 erect or drooping in fr., branched ; spathe complete, hard,, 

 compressed ; male fl. :— calyx cupular, 3-toothed ; pet. 3, much 

 longer, obliquely ovate, valvate; stam. 3-9, fil. subulate, anth. 

 dorsifixed, pistillode minute or o; fem. fl. globose, cal. of male 

 accrescent ; pet. orbicular, imbricate, staminodes 6 or a 

 6-toothed cup ; ov. of 3, free, i -celled carpels, stigmas sessile, 

 uncinate, ovules erect ; fr. a single, oblong, terete, i -seeded 

 carpel, stigma terminal, pericarp fleshy, endocarp membranous;, 

 seed oblong, ventrally deeply grooved, groove branching into 

 2 arms in the centre of the seed, endosperm equable or sub- 

 ruminate, embryo dorsal or subbasilar. — Sp. 1 1 ; 8 mFl.B.Ind. 



Arboreous i. P. zeylanic.a. 



Frutescent 2. P. f.\rinikera. 



I. P. zeylanica, Trim, in Jonrn. Bot. xxiii. 267 (1885). Zndl, S. 



Herm. Mus. 66 and 69. Burm. Thes. 183. Fl. Zeyl. n. 397. Elate 

 sylvestris, L. Sp. PI. 1189 (for the most part) ; Moon, Cat. 63. P. syl- 

 7'estns, Thw. Enum. 329 (non Roxb.). J\ pusilla, Becc. Malesia, iii. 

 408 (non Gaertn.). C. P. 3172. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 425. Malesia t. 44, f. 5. {P. pusilla). 



Stem 8-20 ft.; 1. rather short; leaflets very many, qua- 

 drifariously inserted, subequidistant, 7-10 in. long, linear- 

 lanceolate, pungent, coriaceous, concave, spreading at right 

 angles, bright green ; spathe 8-14 in. long, keel furfuraceous ; 

 spadix a foot long or more, young scopiform, ped. stout, 

 rhachis flattened, branches of male 4-6 in. long, of fem. longer; 

 male fl. \ in. long; stam. 6, anth. subsessile, linear; fem. spadix 



