544 



LXXVII. PALM7E. 



[Borassus. 



Leaves fan-shaped. 

 Flowers dioicous, in paniculate spikes ; male spikes thick, 

 cylindrical, flowers fasciculate in the axils of broad 

 whorled imbricate connate bracts, ovary 3-celled . 1. Borassus. 



Flowers polygamous, in compound panicles without bracts ; 



carpels 3, distinct 2. Cham^rops. 



Leaves pinnate or pinnatifid. 



Pinnae cut and jagged, often cuneate .... 3. Wallichia. 



Pinnae linear or lanceolate, entire. 

 Leaves terminal. 

 Flowers dioicous ; fruit fleshy, enclosing a hard seed 



with bony albumen 4. Phoenix. 



Flowers monoicous; pericarp fibrous, endocarp hard, 



bony, albumen oily 5. Cocos. 



Leaves distant, lateral, on long thorny sheaths ; flowers 



in long panicles with sheathing bracts ... 6. Calamus. 



1. BORASSUS, Linn. 



Stem tall cylindric, with a large terminal crown of fan-shaped leaves. 

 Petiole semiterete, hroad-based, edges serrate, with hard horny spinescent 

 serratures. Flowers dioicous, spadix with few simple branches, lower 

 part covered with numerous large sheathing coriaceous and fibrous imbri- 

 cate bracts. Male inflorescence composed of thick cylindric spikes, in 

 pairs or in threes at the ends of the branches of the spadix. Axis thick, 

 cylindric, covered with numerous broad whorled closely set and imbricate 

 bracts, connate at the edges, each bearing in its axil a fascicle of 10-12 

 flowers and numerous membranous bracts, the flowers concealed in bud, 

 but becoming exserted on expansion by the lengthening out of the cor- 

 olla tube. Calyx campanulate, trifid to the middle ; segments narrow- 

 oblong or linear. Corolla a slender solid tube, which, lengthening out, 

 rises above the bract, and expands into a 3-partite limb, with oval con- 

 cave segments. Stamens 6, inserted on the solid corolla tube ; filaments 

 short ; anthers sagittate ; no rudiment of ovary. Female spikes pani- 

 culate, with numerous annular sheathing bracts, each flower consisting 

 of 8-12 unequal, closely imbricate, rounded coriaceous concave leaves 

 (bracts sepals and petals), all similar in shape and texture. Ovary 3-celled, 

 surrounded by 6-9 small sterile stamens ; stigma sessile. Fruit enclosed 

 by the enlarged and partly fleshy closely imbricate perianth and bracts, 

 3-seeded. Albumen horny. 



1. B. flabelliformis, Linn. ; Eoxb. Cor. PI. t. 71, 72 ; Fl. Ind. 790. 

 The Palmyra Tree. Sans. Trinaraja (king of grasses). Vern. Tdl, 

 tola, tar, Hind. ; Potu tadi, the male, penti tati chettu, the female tree, 

 Telugu; Htanben, Burm. 



Young stems covered all their length with the dry leaves or lower part 

 of petioles, old stems marked with the hard black long and narrow scars 

 of the fallen petioles. Base of stem surrounded by a dense mass of numer- 

 ous long cylindrical rootlets, consisting of a tough central vascular axis 

 surrounded by a mass of fibres and a layer of thin brittle bark. Segments 





