CXXXVIII. PALM^. 805 



4. CARYOTA, Linu. 



Tall unarmed palms with annulate, naked or sheathed trunks, soboli- 

 ferous or not, flowering when full grown from the axils of the leaves, 

 beginning at the upper and then successively do\vn^^■ards, after which 

 the plant dies, usually a male and a female spadix alternately. Leaves 

 terminal, usually forming an elongate coma, few, large, bipinnatisect 

 or decompound ; leaflets (pinnules) very obliquely dimidiately flabelli- 

 form or cuneiform, prsemorse or rounded at the tip, their bases swollen 

 at the point of attachment ; nerves and veins flabellate. Flowers 

 moncecious, solitary and nude, or ternate with the central flower female, 

 on the slender pendulous branches of axillary (interfoUar) much fasti- 

 giately branched spadices with short thick peduncles. Spathes 3-5, 

 incomplete, tubular. Male flowees symmetric. Sepals 3, short, 

 rounded, coriaceous, closely imbricate. Petals 3, larger than the sepals, 

 linear-oblong or ovate-oblong, valvate. Stamens numerous ; filaments 

 short ; anthers long ; pistillode 0, Female tlowees subglobose, smaller 

 than the male. Sepals 3, ovate or orbicular, concave, closely imbricate. 

 Petals 3, rounded, valvate. Staminodes 3 or 6 or 0. Ovary obovoid, 

 3-gonous, 3-celled ; ovule in each fertile cell solitary ; stigma sessile, 

 3-lobed. Fruit glabrous, 1-2 (rarely 3) -seeded, crowned by the stigma ; 

 sarcocarp full of rhaphides. Seed erect ; albumen ruminate ; embryo 

 dorsal. — Disteib. Tropical Asia, Malaya and Australia ; species 

 about 10. 



1. Caryota urens, Linn. Sj). PI. (1753) p. 1189. Trunk 40-60 ft. 

 high by 1-1 1 ft. in diam., cylindric, annulate, not or scarcely sobolife- 

 rous, smooth, grey, shining, covered with long shallow cracks with corky 

 edges. Leaves bipinnate, 18-20 by 10-15 ft. ; primary divisions 5- 

 6 ft. long, arched and drooping ; leaflets 4-8 in, long, fasciculate or 

 alternate, cuneiform, obliquely truncate, irregularly serrate-toothed on 

 the truncate margin, the upper margin produced beyond the leaflets into 

 a tail, flabellately veined, quite glabrous, bright green, shining, the 

 margins at the base recurved ; petiole very stout, about 3 in. thick at 

 the base ; sheath smooth, with fibrous netted margins. Spadix 10-12 ft, 

 long ; branches simple, forming a dense tassel drooping from the stout 

 short peduncle, all reaching the same level. Spathes 1| ft. long, closely 

 embracing the peduncle of the spadix. Male flowees : Buds naiTowly 

 cylindric, | in. long. Sepals cordate, ciliate. Petals coriaceous, con- 

 cave, I'eddish. Stamens about 40 ; filaments short, white ; anthers 

 acuminate, as long as the petals. Female elowees : Sepals rather 

 broader than in the male. Staminodes usually 3. Ovule solitary, 

 erect. Fruit |-| in, in diam,, reddish ; pericarp acrid, stinging. Seeds 

 1 or 2. Fl. B. I. V. 6, p. 422 ; Grab. Cat. p. 226 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 278 ; 

 Griff. Palm. Brit. E. Lid. (1850) p. 109 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 4, p. 324 ; 

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

 (1899) p. 525; Prain, Beng. PI. p. 1093; Brandis, Ind. Trees (1906) 

 p. 654 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 2, p. 206. — Flowers during most of 

 the year. Veen, Bherli-mdd. 



