424 CLXIII. PALMED. (Beccari & Hook, f .) 



15. NXPA, Wurmb. 



A prostrate aestuarial gregarious palm ; stein (or rootstock) branched. 

 Leaves pinnatisect ; leaflets lanceolate, plicate. Spatlies many, sheathing. 

 Spadix terminal, branched, erect, fruiting drooping ; flowers monoecious, 

 male in catkin-like lateral branches of the spadix, female in a globose 

 terminal head, perianth glumaceous. Male ft. minute mixed with seta- 

 ceous bracteoles ; sepals linear, with broad truncate indexed tips, imbricate ; 

 petals smaller ; stamens 3, filaments cuneate, anthers linear basifixed ; 

 pistillode 0. Fern. ft. much larger; sepals 6, rudimentary, displaced; 

 staminodes ; carpels 3, tips free, each with an oblique stigmatic line ; 

 ovules 3, erect. Fruit large globose, syncarp of many obovoid hexagonal 

 1-celled 1-seeded carpels, with pyramidal tips ana! infra-apical stigmas, 

 pericarp fleshy and fibrous, endocarp spongy and flower,y. Seed erect, 

 grooved on one side, testa coriaceous viscid within, and adherent to 

 the endocarp, liilum broad; albumen equable, hollow; embryo basilar, 

 obconic. 



1. N. fruticahs, Wiii-ml. in Verli. Hat. GeunufucJt.i. 319; ex 

 Rumpti. ii. 72 ; iii. 164, 165 ; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 305, t. 208 ; Law. 

 lllustr. t. 897; Ldbill. in Mem.Mus. Par. v. t. 21, 22 ; Gavd. Voy.Bonite, 

 t. 67 ; Kuntli Enum. iii. 110, 589 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 150 ; Griff. Notul. 

 iii: 168; Ic. PL Asiat. 244 ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 650; Thw. Enum. 327; 

 Kurz. For. Fl, ii. 541. 



From the SUNDERBUNDS, southwards to the MALAY PENINSULA. CEYLON. 

 DISTKIB. Malay Archip. and Australia. 



Trunk or rootstock very stout. Leaves 1530 ft. ; leaflets 4 5 ft., rigid, irlaueous 

 beneath ; petiole 4-5 ft., very stout. Spadix 4-7 ft. ; peduncle 3-4 ft. Fruit as 

 large as a man's head; carpels 4-6 in. long, smooth, brown. Not recorded as 

 existing in either coast of the Deccan Peninsula. 



16. PHOENIX, Linn. 



Low or tall dioecious palms. Leaves pinnate; leaflets lanceolate or 

 ensiform, sides induplicate. Spadices usually several, interfoliar, erect or 

 drooping in fruit, branched ; spathe basilar, complete, coriaceous : flowers 

 small, yellowish, coriaceous. Male ft., calyx cupular 8-toothed ; petals 3, 

 obliquely ovate, valvate; stamens 6 (3-9), filaments subulate, anthers 

 erect, dorsifixed ; pistillode miruite- or 0. Fern. fl. globose, calyx of the 

 male, accrescent; petals rounded, imbricate; staminodes 6, or a 6-toothed 

 cup; carpels 3, free, stigmas sessile, uncinate; ovules erect. Fruit 

 oblong, terete, 1-seeded, stigma terminal, pericarp fleshy, endocarp mem- 

 branous. Seed oblong, ventrally grooved ; albumen equable or sub- 

 ruminate, embryo dorsal or subbasilar. Species 10 or, 11, African and 

 Asiatic. 



The following attempt at diagnosing the Indian species of Phoenix is tentative, 

 and awaits much further knowledge of the living plants before it can he accepted as 

 trustworthy. The true Date, P. dactylifera, has been introduced into Siudh and 

 JN.W. India./. D. H. 



* Embryo ventral. 



f Stem tall, (or short in P. zeylanica}. 



