94. PALM^. [ 2. Lieu ah. 



II. I. bi-pinnate. Iflts. flabellate or cuneiform . . 3. Caryota. 



III. L. pinnate. Lfits. narrow. Erect trees or shrubs. 



Tree- Ovary 3-celled. Fruit a cocoannt ... 4. Cocos. 

 Trees < : shrubs. Ovary of 3 free carpels. Fr. a 



berry 5. Phcenix. 



Tree. Ovary 1-oelled. Fr. sub-baccate . . • . 6. Areca. 



IV. L. pinnate. Scandent prickly shrubs ... 7. Calamus, 



1. Borassus, Schreb. 



1. B. flabelliformis, WilU. Tale, S.; Tal or tali (the 

 common vera, name derived from the Sanscrit tola). The 

 Palmyra palm. 



A beautiful and well-known tree with a Bmooth trunk 

 attaining GO ft, and a large crown of fan-shaped leaves with 

 a prickly petiole. Spadices very large axillary. M. fl. very 

 small su.:k on small spikelets in the branches of the panicle. 

 F. fl. large globose 1" diam. with large coriaceous imbricating 

 bracts surrounding the fleshy accrescent perianth. Drupe 

 6-8" diam., 3-celled and seeded. 



This palm is mostly confined to a belt in Chota Nagpur skirting the 

 Gangetic plain from the Sone to the Ganges at Sahebganj. It is, however, 

 common on tho Palamau and Hazaribagh hills within this zone, esp. oa 

 gneissic rocks, and occurring quite naturalized in the jungles. Anderson 

 speaks of semi spontaneous jBorassus and Fhcenix between Eaneegunge 

 and the Barakur E. Elsewhere it is only occasional and near villages. 



Fl8. May. Fr. the following May. 



3. Licnala, Thunb. 

 l. L. peltata, &oxb. 



A small erect palm 6-20 ft. high with Bub-orbicular 

 digitately partite leaves with obcuneate segments and inter- 

 foliar erect spadices 6-8 ft, with simple drooping tomentose 

 spikes 8-18" long. 



Swamps at the heads of springs Bnd along sluggish streamB in the 

 Saranda forests, frequent. Fls. Dec- April. Fr. Mard^May, 



546 



