336 PalmeCB. [Borassus. 



9. BORASSUS,* Linn. 



A tall dioecious palm ; 1. fan-shaped, plicate, sides of lobes 

 indupHcate in vernation ; spadix interfoliar, very large, simply- 

 branched, ped. sheathed with open spathes, male with stout 

 cylindric branches, densely clothed with imbricating bracts,, 

 fem. sparingly branched, few-fld. ; male fl. biseriate in small 

 scorpioid spikelets enclosed in the bracts, secund ; perianth 

 glumaceous; sep, and pet. 3 each, imbricate; stam. 6, pistillode 

 of 3 bristles ; fem. fl. large, globose, perianth fleshy, greatly 

 accrescent in fr. ; sep. imbricate ; pet. convolute, staminodes 

 6-9; ov. globose, entire or 3-4-cleft, 3-4 celled, stigmas 3, 

 ovules basilar, erect ; fr. subglobose, with 1-3 obcordate 

 compressed pyrenes, stigmas terminal ; seeds compressed, 

 quadrate, top 3-lobed, embryo apical in the equable hollow 

 endosperm. — Monotypic. 



*B. flabellifer, L. Sp. PI. 1187 (i753)- Tal, S. Panal, T. 



Herm. Mus. 49. Burm. Thes. 181. P'l. Zeyl. n. 395. B.JlabelliformiSy 

 L. Syst. V'eg. ed. 13, 829; Moon, Cat. 69; Thw. Enum. 329. Lontarus 

 domestical Gaertn. Fruct. 1". 2. C. P. 3743. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 482. Rheede, Hort. Mai. i. t. 9 (fem.), and t. 10 (male). 

 Rumph. Herb. Amb. i. t. 10. Gaertn. Fruct. i. t. 8 {Lontarus). Roxb. 

 Cor. PI. tt. 71, 72. 



Trunk 60-70 ft. high by 2-3 diam., black, scarred above, 

 swollen above the middle and again contracted upwards ; 

 1. 6-10 ft. diam., palmately fan-shaped, rigidly coriaceous, 

 many-cleft into lanceolate or linear 2-fid lobes 2-4 ft. long with 

 spinulose margins, petiole stout, with spinous margins, ligule 

 short ; male and fem. spadix several ft. long, branches 

 cylindric ; male fl. mixed with scaly bracteoles, exserted 

 seriatim from the bracts as the spikes lengthen ; sep. 

 narrowly cuncate, tip truncate, inflexed ; pet. shorter, obovate- 

 spathulate; anth. large, subsessile, oblong; fem. fl. i in. diam., 

 sep. fleshy, rcniform, pet. smaller; ov. subtrigonous, stigmas 

 sesssile, recurved ; drupe broadly obovoid, 8 in. diam., seated 

 on the greatly enlarged perianth, mesocarp fleshy and fibrous, 

 pyrenes 2^ in. broad, black; testa adherent to the endocarp. 



Dry region, especially in the desert sandy tracts near the coast ; \ery 

 common, but always planted. Fl. March, April. 



Cultivated in India, Burma, Malaya, apparently wild in Trop. Africa. 

 This is usually knovVn as the Palmyra, the Portuguese ' Palmeira' slightly 

 altered in spelling. It is grown in vast groves, like the cocoanut, in the 

 north of Ceylon, especially in Jaffna District, as is noticed by Rumph. 

 (1. c. 48). 



* lU'uHiaaot: is the name of the fruit of a palm given by Dioscorides. 



