Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 221 



Petals shorter obovate, spathullate truncate. Stamens 6, anthers 

 subsessile, oblong. Female spatlix few branched, flowers scattered, 

 flowers large globose. Sepals reniform, petals smaller, convolute. 

 Staminodes 6-9 ; ovary globose, sub-trigonous, 3-4 celled. Stigmas 3 

 recurved sessile. Fruit a large globose drupe, with 1-3 obcordate 

 fibrous pyrenes, seeds oblong, albumen equable. Species 2, one Afri- 

 can, cultivated (possibly wild in India) throughout the East, the 

 other Malayan. 



B. Machadonis, Ridl. Journ. Roy. As. Soc. S. Br. Vol. 44, p. 203. 

 Stem tall and nearly as thick as a cocoanut palm, ringed. Petioles 

 12-15 feet long, 1^ inch thick unarmed, deeply channelled, blade sub- 

 orbicular, 4 feet across, 6 feet long, split nearly to the base, into linear 

 acuminate lobes. Male inflorescence of three cylihdric catkins, 14 

 inches long, 1\ inch thick. Bracts oblong, limb ovate, obtuse. Calyx 

 3 lobed, i inch long, as long as the bract, lobes oblong, unequal, one 

 broad and rounded at the top, the others acute, split. Corolla lobes 3 

 linear narrow, edges fringed f inch. Stamens, filaments shoi-t, anthers 

 long, linear acute. Female spadix 12 inches long. Peduncle 3 inches. 

 Flowers about 20, terminal portion of spadix sterile. Bracts 2 broad- 

 ly semicircular 1 inch long, edges lacerate, orange brown outside, yel- 

 low inside. Fruit obovoid. Pyrenes 3 oblong, woody, 3 inches long, 

 1 inch through covered with rough brown hair. 



Perak : in dense forest at Kamuning ; Sungei Siput (Machado) 

 " Chang-hai." Distrib. Siam. The whole of the rest of this section 

 of palms is confined to Africa, and its islands. 



B. flabellifer, L. sp. PI. 1187. The "Lontar" of Malacca, 

 or Palmyra palm, is occasionally to be found in the vicinity of temples 

 and towns near the sea, having been introduced by Hindus, and is said 

 to have established itself in some quantity in Kelantan. Its native 

 name Lontar is derived from an old word Lon for Pohon (tree) and Tab, 

 a perversion of Tal, the Hindu name for the plant. 



XX. PANDANAE. 



Unisexual shrubs or trees erect and branched or scandent with 

 aerial roots. Leaves usually in a spiral, narrow linear or lorate acumi- 

 nate, coriaceous, often very long ; margins and keel usually armed with 

 spine-like teeth. Spikes axillary or terminal, simple or branched with 

 leaf-like bracts. Flowers small, numerous, crowded. Perianth absent. 

 Male flowers of numerous stamens with free or connate filaments an- 

 thers erect basifixed. ' Pistillode small or none. Female flowers with 

 or without staminodes. Ovary one-celled free or connate with those of 

 adjoining flowers. Stigmas sessile. Ovules solitary and suberect or 

 many parietal. Fruit a globose or cylindric mass of one or more-celled 

 woody or fleshy angular drupes, free or several connate. Seeds minute. 



