180 PHILIPPINE PALMS 
Genus CARYOTA Linnaeus 
(Plates XV-XVII) 
Species of the genus Caryota, the so-called fish-tail palms, 
are decidedly ornamental, and are well characterized by their 
bipinnate leaves, their peculiar, inequilateral leaflets, which are 
toothed on the upper margins, and by their axillary, pendulous 
inflorescences. Some species of Caryota send up shoots from 
the base of the trunk, but in the Philippines only a single species 
has this characteristic. When the palm reaches full size, it 
sends out a flowering shoot from the axil of the uppermost leaf 
and then produces successive shoots in the lower axils until the 
tree is exhausted and dies. There are five species known from 
the Philippines. 
Conspectus of the species. 
a’. Large trees. Stem tall, solitary. Fruit 1- or 2-seeded. Fruiting peri- 
anth 10 to 11 mm in diameter. Male flowers large, 15 to 17 mm long, 
with numerous stamens. 
b*. Leaflets of the full-grown plant long and narrow, having the upper 
margin at times very obsoletely, yet at times rather sharply, and 
very unequally toothed, and the lower margin much produced into 
a taillike point. Male flowers with 40 to 60 stamens. Stem up to 
30 to 40 cm in diameter............ 1. C. Rumphiana var. philippinensis. 
b*. Leaflets having the upper margin deeply and acutely toothed, the 
teeth long, narrow, acuminate, and very close together. Male flowers 
with 27 to 30 stamens. A smaller plant than var. philippinensis. 
C. Rumphiana var. oxyodonta. 
a’, Of medium size. Fruit always 1-seeded. Male flowers (where known) 
small and with few stamens. 
b*. Stem solitary. Male flowers with 6 to 9 stamens only. 
c. Trunk 5 to 8 m high, 10 to 20 cm in diameter. Leaflets erect- 
spreading, dimidiate-rhomboidal. Male flowers 6 to 7 mm long, 
with 9 stamens. Fruiting perianth 6 to 7 mm in diameter. 
Fruit 12 to 17 mm in diameter, spherical. Seed with a chestnut- 
brown polished surface. Branches of the spadix strongly hairy- 
SeUrfiy ys 2A. nH wo EN 8S eee 2. C. Cuming. 
c. Leaflets very spreading or horizontal, frequently opposite, very 
sharply toothed. Male flowers * * *. Fruit spherical, 12 mm 
in diameter. Seed nearly spherical, 8 to 9 mm in diameter, with 
a black, even, and polished surface......................------ 3. C. Merrilli. 
c*’. Leaflets ascending, very narrow and very deeply and sharply toothed. 
Male flowers having 6 stamens only. Fruit 11 to 12 mm in diam- 
eter. Seed slightly broader than high, 9 mm broad, of a 
shiny chestnut-brown color, the surface slightly grooved. 
4. C. majestica. 
b?. Soboliferous or with stems in clusters, about 4 m high and 10 cm in 
diameter. Male flowers 8 to 12 mm long, with 12 to 16 stamens. 
Fruit 15 to 16 mm in diameter, frequently broader than high. 
Fruiting perianth 8.5 to 9 mm in diameter...............--------- 5. C. mitis. 
