114 cxLvii. PALM^ (weight). [Ancistrophi/llum, 



filaments adnate to the corolla, Ungulate or clavate ; anthers elongate, 

 sagittate, dorsifixed. Ovary 3-ceUed, attenuate into a long slender 

 style ; stigmas 3, short ; ovules erect. Fruit baccate, 1-seeded, oblong, 

 clothed with retrorsely imbricate scales. Seed oblong, compressed, 

 smooth, erect; hilum basal; raphe linear, reaching almost to the apex 

 on the dorsal side and then with obscure branches; chalaza dorsal, 

 slightly incrassate and pressed into the albumen ; albumen homogen- 

 eous, hard ; embryo ventral, horizontal, about half-way up the albumen. 

 — Monocarpic, climbing palms. Stems csespitose, slender, elongate. 

 Leaves remote, alternate, equally pinnate ; leaflets somewhat aggregate 

 or alternate ; rhachis produced at the apex into a long cirrhus ; sheath 

 spiny, produced into a long ochrea. Spadix terminal, distichously 

 branched ; spathes many, incomplete ; bracts spathaceous, enclosing 2 

 flowers ; bracteoles united into a bicuspidate cup. 



Species 3, endemic. 



Petiole long. Leaflets broad. Seed round. 



Leaflets unarmed at the mar^^ins . . . . 1. A. Iceve. 



Leaflets with spiny cilia at the margins . . . 2. A. opacum. 



Petiole short. Leaflets narrow. Seed compressed . 3. A. secundijiorum, 



1. A, laeve, Drude in Engl. Jahrh. xxi. 111. Stem climbing, 

 slender, 30-40 ft. long, annulate, unarmed. Leaves 4-5 ft. long, 9-12 

 in. apart, covered with easily removable dark brown tomentum, becom- 

 ing glaucous ; sheath about 1 ft, long, tubular, closely adpressed to the 

 stem, bearing solitary horizontally patent spines towards its apex, pro- 

 duced at the apex into an ochrea 1 ft. long, splitting down one side and 

 clothed with very strong scattered compressed subulate spines ; petiole 

 8-9 in. long, 3 lin. wide, flat above, convex beneath, bearing remote 

 recurved spines thickened at the base ; rhachis gradually attenuate 

 upwards, convex on the back, spiny on the margins, compressed in the 

 upper part and produced into a cirrhus 1-1 J ft. long, bearing 4-6 

 alternate much-reduced leaflets ; leaflets in 9-13 opposite or subopposite 

 clusters, broadly elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed at the base, 

 slightly falcate, smooth and shining on both surfaces, unarmed, with 2 

 (rarely 1) primary nerves prominent below, central ones 7-9 in. long, 

 IJ in. wide, the lowest smaller and slightly deflexed. Spadix ovate, 

 lJ-2 ft. long; primary branches G-8, the lowest somewhat recurved 

 and simply branched ; lowest branchlets 4-5 in. long ; spathes tubular^ 

 obliquely splitting, very spiny, produced at the apex into a tail several 

 in. long ; bracts 1 in. long, tubular, inflated, obliquely truncate, very 

 long acuminate on one side at the apex ; bracteoles Very numerous, 

 2-3 lin. long. Flowers distichous, patent, geminate, each pair sub- 

 tended by a more or less concave bracteole, shortly pedicelled. Calyx 

 campanulate, 2 lin. long, trifid ; lobes ovate, acuminate, rigid, striate 

 on the back. Corolla 4 lin. long, yellow; lobes 3 J lin. long, 1 lin. 

 wide, long lanceolate, acute, thickened at the margins, valvate, rather 

 rigid, concave, striate. Stamens 6, a little shorter than the corolla ; 

 filaments thick, tongue-shaped, acute, Ij lin. long; anthers bifid at 

 the base, 1 lin. long, yellow, fixed at the centre of the back. Ovary 



