356 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



leaves like those of Gloriosa. It looks most like a rush, in which 

 order some authors put it; others in Commelinaceae. 



Cliffs at Vingorla. Among rocks near the sea; S. Konkan (D.). 

 Throughout India, chiefly near the coast (If.). 



ORDER 122. PALMED. Palms. 



Trees or shrubs with un branched trunks, marked with the 

 scars of the leaves, which are collected at the top, pinnate or 

 fan-shaped with sheathing petioles. Flowers small in panicles 

 or spikes, enclosed in spathes, generally with 3 bracts ; perianth 

 generally 6-divided in 2 series, stamens 3 or 6, ovary free, 

 generally of 3 carpels. Fruit a drupe or hard berry, often with 

 a fibrous covering. 



The palms are a purely tropical order, and, being so different in 

 appearance from all other trees, have a certain romantic celebrity of 

 their own. They were called by Linnaeus " the princes of the vege- 

 table kingdom." Yet it is true that "masses of palms are far from 

 having the grand and imposing look of our European forests. . . . 

 The palm tree really displays all its splendours and its strength only 

 when it shows itself in little groups in the midst of rocks." Pouchet. 

 On the other hand, to walk through a grove of fine palm trees, such 

 as the cocoanut, must always be delightful. " The scene ... is one 

 of great interest : if, indeed, a person fresh from sea, and who has 

 just walked for the first time in a grove of cocoanut trees, can be a 

 judge of anything but his own happiness." Darwin. 



Old writers speak of " the palm tree " as if there were only one 

 member of the family : " This tree is one of the most famous of all the 

 forest, and is the usual emblem of constancy, frnitfulness, patience 

 and victory; which the more it is oppressed, the more it flourisheth, 

 the higher it grows, the stronger and broader it is in the top." 

 Cruden. 



Palms in W. India are seen mostly about the coast, where we 

 frequently find the combination mentioned by Tennyson, 



"... Hills with peaky tops engrailed, 

 And many a tract of palm and rice " 



but the islands and peninsulas nearer the line supply the great 

 majority of the species found in the Indian Flora. 



H. makes 6 tribes, which I name, though I think the descriptions 

 are too technical for my purpose. In the generic descriptions he 

 often speaks of the inflorescence as a spadix. 



TRIBE 1. 



1. ARECA. Leaves pinnate, spadices branched, male flowers 

 many, minute, females much larger, few, at the base of the 

 branches, stigmas 3, sessile, fruit oval or oblong. 



