102 cxLvii. PALM^ (weight). [Phcenix. 



4, PHCEHIX, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 921. 



Male flower oblong or lanceolate. Calyx cupular, 3-toothed. Petals 

 3, slightly connate at the base, valvate. Stamens 6 ; filaments connate 

 at the base ; anthers linear-oblong, dorsifixed. Rudiment of ovary 

 small or none. Female flower globose. Calyx as in the male. Petals 

 3, rotundate, concave, broadly imbricate. Staminodes 6, connate. 

 Carpels 3, distinct ; stigma sessile ; ovuie erect. Fruit drupaceous ; 

 stigmatic scar terminal. Seed deeply grooved on the ventral side ; 

 albumen cartilaginous ; embryo minute, dorsal. — Unarmed trees. 

 Stems cylindrical. Leaves pinnate ; leaflets lanceolate, indupiicate. 

 Spadix interfoliaceous, branched. Spathe solitary. Flowers small, 

 yellow, dioecious. 



Species about 12, dispersed through Tropical and Subtropical Asia and Africa. 

 Fruit tieshy . . . . . . . . 1. P. dactylifera. 



Fruit dry. 



Endocarp hard, ' Seed slighcly pointed above, 7 by 



4 lin. . . . . . , . . 2. P. abyssiniea. 



Endocarp thin. Seed rounded above, 5-7 by 2|- 



3 lin. . . . . . . . . 3. p. reclinata. 



1. P. dactylifera, Linn. Sp. PI. ed. i. 1188. Stem tall, straight, 

 cylindrical, soboliferous at the base, scaly in the younger parts with 

 the remains of leaf-bases. Leaves 10 ft. or more iong^ glaucous; 

 leaflets ianceoiate-linear, acuminate, somewhat 4 -ranked, the anticous 

 often distichous, irregularly and remotely aggregate, the central 

 longest. Female flower globose. Corolla twice as long as the calyx. 

 Drupe long, elliptic, variously coloured, usually more than 1 in. long 

 pericarp thick, fleshy, saccharine. — Gsertn. Fract. i. 23, t. 9, fig. 2 

 Forsk. Fl. ^gypt.-Arab. cxxvi. ; Lam. Encycl. ii. 261,. and 111. t 

 893, fig. 1; Hook. Journ. Bot. 1834, 212; Delile, Fl. Egypte, 169 

 t. 62 ; Mart, in Munch, gel. Anzeig. 1838, 638, and 1839, 38, and Palm 

 iii. 257, t. 120, t. X, fig. 1, t. Z, i. fig. A ; Kunth, Enum. iii, 255 

 Kirk in Journ. Linn. Soc. ix. 233 ; Becc. Malesia, iii. 355, t. 43, figs 

 1-14 ; Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. B. 12, C. 130 ; Drude in Engl. Jahrb. xxi 

 110. 



Upper Cruiuea. Senegambia : Fort St. Louis, Brunner (ex Mariius). Isle 

 of Goree ; Porto Prana, JBrunner (ex Martins) . 



Xrile Xiazid. British Sbmaliland : Waggar Moxmiams, Mrs. Zort-FMlli^ps 



Iiower Guinea. Congo and Benguela (ex Martins). 



mozaxnb. Sist. Portuguese Ease Africa : " On the Zambesi there is one 

 solitary tree outside the stockade of Sena,^' Kirk. German East Africa : Kiliman 

 jaro, up to nearly 6000 ft., Johnston, 197 ! British Central Africa : Nyasaland 

 on the Upper Shire at Matope, Scott-Mliot, 8494 ! 



Owing to this species having been cultivated throughout Tropical Africa from 

 remote times, it is difficult to decide where it is truly indigenous. 



2. P, abyssiniea, Drude in Engl. Jahrh. xxi. 110, 119. Habit 

 of P. dactylifera, Linn. Lower leaflets reduced to spines ; upper 

 lanceolate, more or less aggregate, 10 in. by J in. Calyx of male 



