GROUP V. ANGIOSPERM/E : MONOCOTYLEDONES. 



485 



lar: when syncarpous, the ovary has from one to three loculi. 

 Each loculus contains, typically, a single basal ovule ; but in tri- 

 merous ovaries, two of the ovules are generally abortive : frequently 

 not more than one of the carpels (whether the gynseceum be apo- 

 carpous or syncarpous) developes into the fruit: the fruit is 

 generally baccate or drupaceous, one-seeded : the seed is large, and 

 the contained endosperm is horny. 



Their mode of growth is somewhat various. Most Palms bear 

 their leaves closely arranged in a crown at the top of a tall or of 

 a quite short stem, which is clothed for some distance below its 

 apex with the remains of the older withered leaves. But in some 

 genera, e.g. Calamus, the stems creep or climb and the leaves are 

 inserted at some distance from each other. The blade of the leaf 

 commonly splits in the course of its growth, 

 assuming a compound palmate or pinnate form. 

 The inflorescence is invested by bracts : there 

 is usually a large bract (spathe) which en- 

 velopes the whole inflorescence when young, 

 and other, inner, bracts which either partially 

 invest it or (when branched) its branches. 



Palms chiefly inhabit the tropics, par- 

 ticularly the Moluccas, Brazil, and the region 

 of the Orinoco, and the different genera be- 

 long exclusively (at least originally) either to 

 the Old or to the New World. 



FIG. 297. -Port of the 

 panicle of ? flowers of 

 Chauiaedorea: the 

 thick axis; a the ex- 

 ternal; and j) the inter- 

 nal whorl of the peri- 

 anth ;/ ovary (x 3). 



PhcKnix dactt/lifera (the Date Palm) a native of 

 Asia and Africa, has pinnatifid leaves. Of the 

 three ovaries, one only developes to form the fruit 

 which is known as the Date (p. 475, Fig. 291) ; the 

 stone of the Date consists of a very thin testa en- 

 closing the large mass of hard endosperm in which 



the embryo is imbedded. Chamcerops humilis is a frequently cultivated < .ma- 

 mental plant, with fan-like leaves, which belongs to the Mediterranean 

 region. Metroxylon (Ett-Sagus) Rumphii and teuc, growing in the Mo- 

 luccas, are the plants from which Sago is obtained ; it consists of thw 

 starch-grains obtained from the parenchyma of the trunk. The stems of 

 species of Calamus, in the East Indies, supply Malacca-cane. Areca 

 Catechu (Fig. 298 J) is the Betel-Palm of tropical Asia, Coco* nucifera (the 

 Coco-nut Palm) has, as is well known, many uses. The fruit itself 

 gigantic drupaceous fruit; the mesocarp is traversed by an immense 

 number of vascular bundles, which are used to make ropes, etc. In- 

 side the excessively hard innermost layer of the pericarp, the eiidocarp, 

 lies a single large seed. When the fruit is mature, the endosperm forms a 



