402 CLXii. JUNCAGEjE. (J. D. Hooker.) [Luzula. 



ALPINE HIMALAYA ; from Kashmir to Kumaon, alt. 12-14,500 ft., Royle, c. 

 DISTRIB. Ncrth Alpine and Arctic regions. 



Perennial, 2-10 in. high. Leaves densely faf.cicled, radical 1-4 in. long, 

 T i_ | in. broad, channelled, ciliate or not. Cyme ^-f in. long; lower bract leafy, 

 usually elongate, floral as long as the flowers, lanceolate, aristate ; bracts brown with 

 broad'white membranous ciliate margins and tip. Sepals % in. long, ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, aristate, very dark brown. Stamens 6. Capsule oblong, obtuse, shorter 

 than the sepals. 



DOUBTFUL SPECIES. 



L. sp. ?; Sikkim Himalaya, alt. 10-11,000 ft., J. D. H., Pantling referred by 

 Buchenau doubtfully to the European L. parvijiora, var. subcongesta, but in much 

 too young a state for identification. The bracts are ciliate, the sepals ovate acumi- 

 nate and the stamens are 3 only. There are other Himalayan species in too imperfect 

 a state for determination. 



. PALBIEJE. 



By Dr. 6. Beccari & J. D. Hooker. 



Shrubs or trees, solitary or gregarious, naked or prickly, rarely pubes- 

 cent. Stem erect scandent or decumbent, rarely branched above. Leaves 

 alternate, plaited in bud, pinnatisect or palmate, rarely simple or bipinnate ; 

 petiole sheathing. Flowers 1- or 2- sexual, small, in panicles or spikes that 

 are enclosed in one or more large sheathing bracts (spathes), usually 

 3-bracteate. Perianth inferior, segments 6 in two series (sepals and 

 petals) usually all free, imbricate or valvate. Stamens 3 or 6, rarely more ; 

 anthers versatile. Ovary 1-3-celled or of 3 1 -celled carpels ; stigmas 3, 

 usually sessile; ovules 1-2 in each carpel, adnate to the wall, base, or top 

 of the cell, anatropous. Fruit a 1-3-celled drupe or hard berry or of 1-3 

 carpels ; pericarp smooth, rough, or clothed with shining scales that imbri- 

 cate downwards. Seeds erect or laterally attached, rarely pendulous ; 

 raphe usually branching all over the testa ; albumen horny or bony, solid 

 (equable) or ruminate ; embryo small, in a small cavity near the surface 

 of the albumen. Genera about 130, species about 1100, chiefly tropical. 



I am deeply indebted to Dr. Beccari for the generous loan of the mss. of his most 

 valuable researches on the Palms of British India, which form the materials for an 

 elaborate treatise on all the Asiatic and Malayan genera and species of the Order, 

 of which fragments have appeared in his (now abandoned) admirable work, 

 " Malesia." The mss. include materials for framing more or less complete descrip- 

 tions of most of the Indian Palms, with notes on others; and are very voluminous, 

 many closely written foolscap pages being often devoted to .a single species. This, 

 and the fact of the whole-being in Italian, and in an orthography that is not always 

 legible, requires me to crave Dr. Beccari's and my readers' indulgence, if in the framing 

 of diagnoses and descriptions I have in any case misinterpreted his statements 

 or views. 



It was, indeed, a great disappointment to me, that Dr. Beccari declined to under- 

 take the completion of his work, and the drawing up of specific diagnoses in the form 

 adopted in the Flora of British India, a task which he is so good as to assure me it 

 would have gratified him to have accomplished, had he not definitely given up the 

 further study of botany. This has compelled me to associate my name with his as 

 joint author, which I do with great reluctance, for he is not only more familiar than I 

 am with the genera through his long journeys in the Malayan Archipelago, but had 

 collected together and examined, for the purpose of his work, the materials contained 

 in all the principal European and Indian Herbaria. It remains to add that, after 

 having examined all available specimens at Kew, I have throughout adopted Dr. 

 Beccari's systematic disposition of the species, and his names for those previously 

 undescribed. 



