Phoenix?^ Palmecs. 327 



long-peduncled, ped. i in, broad, flattened, branches 6-10 in., 

 divergent in fr. ; fern. fl. scattered, globose, \ in. diam., cal. 

 cupular ; pet. orbicular ; fr. about \ in. by \ diam., obovoid- 

 oblong, apiculate, red, at length violet-blue ; seed nearly as 

 long as the fr., groove dilating into a canal in the axis of 

 the endosperm. 



Moist low country; very common, especially on Southern Coast. 

 Fl. Feb. ; yellowish. 



Endemic. 



Beccari (Malesia, iii. 409) refers to this P. pusilla, Gaertn. (and 

 adopts that name), which seems to me to belong rather to the next. The 

 stem of P. zeylatiica sometimes attains 20 ft. in height, and is 

 often characteristic of the scenery after burning off the scrubby surround- 

 ing growth for chena-cultivation. Mats and boxes are made of the 

 leaves. The sweet pulp of the fruit is eaten. 



2. P. pusilla, Gaertn. Friict. i. 24 (1788). 



Trim, in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 173. Xnchu, T. 



P. Jarinifera, Roxb. ; Beccari, Malesia, iii. 404. Moon, Cat. 69. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 426 {P. fariniferd). Gaertn. Fruct. t. 9 (fruit 

 only). Roxb. Cor. PI. t. 74 {P. fariniferd). Becc. 1. c. t. 44, f. 3 {P. 

 farinifera). 



Stem very short, stoloniferous, thickly clothed with old 

 leaf-sheaths ; 1. 4-5 ft. long, petiole short, with one or more 

 leaflets reduced to rigid spines 2 in. long, rhachis strongly 

 laterally compressed, leaflets, sub-quadrifarious, and sub- 

 opposite, 8-12 by \-\ in., divaricate, ensiform, pungent, 

 concave, smooth, pale green, lowest pairs spinescent ; spathe 

 6 in. long, keel furfuraceous ; spadix 8-12 in., erect, branches 

 simple, of male suberect, of fern, spreading, ped. of fern, 

 spadix elongating in fr., branches 6-8 in. long ; male fl. \ in. 

 long; pet. broadly ovate-obtuse; fem. fl. \ in. long; sep. 

 strongly 3-ribbed ; fr. \ in., oval or oblong-ovoid, obtuse, 

 apiculate, dull purple-black, young bright crimson, shining, 

 pericarp fleshy, sweet ; seed oblong, polished. 



In forests in the dry region ; very common. Fl. March, April. 



Also in S. India {P . farinifera). 



I believe this to be identical with P. farinifera., Roxb. Beccari will 

 not allow that Gaertner's P. pusilla could have been this plant, as he 

 thinks it does not grow in the parts of Ceylon in possession of the Dutch 

 in Hermann's time ; indeed, when I first recorded the plant, I had seen it 

 only from Anuradhapura, and therefore Beccari has supposed it to be 

 very rare in Ceylon; but now I find it to be universal in the sandy 

 forests of the north, all the coast-towns of which were held by the 

 Dutch at the end of the seventeenth century. As for the character, 

 Beccari finds in Gaertner's figure of having deeper and larger arms to the 

 bifid excavation in the endosperm, which thus more resembles P. zeylanica; 

 this is too variable (as seen in Beccari's own figures) to be of much value. 

 This never forms any stem whatever, and Gaertner's specific name is 

 thus very characteristic. — Trimen. 



