CXXXTIII. PALM^, 801 



1. Phoenix sylvestris, lioxh. Hon. Beng. (1814) p. 73. A tall 

 graceful palm wlien not cut for tapping, 30-50 ft. high, with a large 

 thick hemispherical crown ; trunk clothed with the persistent bases of 

 the petioles. Leaves greyish-green, 7-12 ft. long, quite glabrous, 

 pinnate ; leaflets 6-18 by |-1 in., fasciculate, 2-4-farious, rigid ; petioles 

 short, compressed only towards the apex, bearing at the base a few 

 channelled triangular spines reaching 4 in. long. Male flowers white, 

 scented. Spadix 2-3 ft. long, erect ; branches filiform ; peduncle much 

 compressed. Spathes 12-16 in. long, scurfy, separating into 2 boat- 

 shaped valves. Flowers ^-5 in. long, numerous, angular, oblique. 

 Calyx cup-shaped, with 3 short rounded teeth. Petals 3 or 4 times as 

 long as the calyx, concave, warted on the outside. Filaments very 

 short (scarcely any), free ; anthers linear, shorter than the petals. 

 Female flowers : Spadix and spathe as in the male ; fruiting peduncles 

 short, about 6 in. long. Flowers distant, roundish. Calyx cup-shaped, 

 obsoletely 3-toolhed. Petals 3, very broad, convolutely imbricate. 

 Staminodes 3 or 4. Fruit iug-spadix 3 ft. long, nodding, much com- 

 pressed, of a golden orange color. Fruit I-I5 in. long, oblong-ellipsoid, 

 orange-yellow, edible. Seeds f in. long, rounded at the ends, grooved 

 on one face, pale brown. Fl. B. I. v. 6, p. 425; Grab. Cat. p. 224; 

 Dak. & Gibs. p. 278 : Griff. Palm. Brit. E. Ind. (1850) p. 141, t. 228, A; 

 Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 341 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Wat. v. 12 

 (1899) p. 525: Prain, Beng. PI. p. 1096; Brandis, Ind. Trees (1906) 

 p. 645 ; Watt, Diet. Ecou. Prod. v. 6, part 1, p. 208.— Flowers : Jan.- 

 Feb. Vern. Shindi. 



Known as the Wild Date-Pol m or the Date-sugar Palm, cultivated and often self- 

 sown ; tolerably common throughout India ; common in moist ground throughout the 

 dry districts of the Bombay Presidency, usually along banks and in the beds of streams 

 and watercourses, certainly indigenous {Talbot). — Distrib. Throughout India, wild or 

 snore often cultivated. 



The leaves are used for making mats, baskets, brooms, and fans. The petioles are 

 beaten and the fibre twisted into ropes which are employed in drawing water from 

 wells. The fruit is eaten by tlie poorer classes, but is not palatable. From the juice 

 obtained by tapping the tree, a coarse sugar is manufactured by boiling. See Watt, 

 Diet. Econ. Prod. 1. c. 



2. Phoenix robusta, IJool: f. Fl. B. I. v. 6 (1892) p. 427. Trunk 

 15-20 ft. high and about 15 in. in diam., clothed and appearing tessel- 

 lated from the spirally arranged small leaf-sheaths. Leaves 3-5 ft. 

 long, glabrous, shining, shorter, broader, thinner, and smoother than 

 those of Pliceiiix sylvestris ; leaflets fascicled, quadrifarious, strict, 

 strongly conduplicate. Fruiting peduncle 2 ft. long. Spathe fringed 

 with brown wool on the keel {Brandis), Ripe fruit brown (Prain). 



The plant was collected by Sir J. Hooker on Parasnath in Behar and 

 seems also to have been obtained by Woodrow on a hill near Bhorkas in 

 the Poona districts. (Notes on a journey from Poona to Nagotna in 

 Records Bot. Survey of India.) The great size of the trunks and their 

 tessellated appearance, due to the comparatively small size of the old 

 appressed leaf-sheaths, furnish good characters. Woodr. in Journ. 

 Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 526, and in Records Bot. Surv. Ind. v. 1, 

 part 6 (1895) p. 94 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees (1906) p. 645. Phceniv humilis 

 robusta, Becc. Males, v. 3 (1886-1890') p. 379. — Flowers : Feb. Vern. 

 Shelu. 



VOL. 11. 3 e 



