286 PALME. [ Praenrx. 
interfoliar erect or drooping spadices; spathe basilar, complete, 
coriaceous. Mate flowers: Sepals 3, connate in a cupular 
3-toothed calyx. Petals 3, okliquely ovate, valvate. Stamens 6; 
filaments short, subulate; antkers erect, dorsifixed. Pistillode 
minute or none. Fem. flowers: Sezals 3, connate in a globose 
acerescent calyx. Petals 3, rounded, imbricate. Staminodes 6, 
free or connate in a 6-toothed cup. Carzels 3, free; stigmas 
sessile, uncinate; ovules erect. Fruit oblong terete, 1-seeded. 
with a terminal stigma; pericarp fleshy ; endocarp membranous, 
Seed oblong, ventrally grooved ; albumen equable or subruminate ; 
embryo dorsal or subbasilar.Species about 11, in trop. and 
subtropical Asia and Africa. 
A tall palm with a slender stem up to 50 ft. 
high , 4 : : : . . 1..P. sylvestris. 
Dwarf palms with short or moderately long 
stems :-— 
Stems very short and usually more or less 
bulbiform ; fruiting peduncle very short ; 
fruit red becoming black when ripe . 2. P. acaulis. 
Stems at length more or less elongate ; fruit- 
ing peduncle usually long; fruit red . 3. P. humilis. 
1. P. sylvestris, Roxb.; Fl. Ind. iu, 787; Brandis For. 
Fl. 554; Ind. Trees 645; F. B. I. vi, 425; Watt BE. D. vol. VI, 
Pt. 1-A., 200 ; Kanji Lol For, Fl. (ed. 2) 345; Gamble Man. 731; 
Prain Beng. Pl. 1096; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 801.—Vern. Khajur 
(Hind.)—Wild Date-palm. 
A tall graceful palm 30-50 ft. high, with a large thick hemispherical 
crown. Trunk solitary, clothed with the persistent bases of the 
petioles. Leaves pinnate, greyish-green, 7-12 ft. long, glabrous; 
leaflets 1-2 ft. by #-1 in. fascicled, 2-4-farious, rigid; petioles short 
compressed towards the apex, bearing at the base a few channelled 
triangular spines up to 4 in. long. MALz flowers white, scented. 
Spadia 2-3 ft. long, erect; branches filiform ; peduncles much com- 
pressed. Spathes 12-16 jn. long, scurfy, separating into 2 boat- 
shaped valves. FEM. flowers: spadix and spathe as in male ; fruit- 
ing peduncles about 6 in. long; fruiting spadix 3 ft. long, nodding, 
much compressed, of a golden-orange colour. J ruit oblong-ellip- 
soid, orange-yellow to reddish-brown, edible. Seeds } in. long, 
rounded at ends, grooved to the centre on one face, pale-brown. 
