552 LXXVII. PALM^E. [Wallichia. 



nulate, covered all over with a thin coating of a whitish substance, which is 

 scraped off, mixed with tallow, and made into candles. It consists of vegetable 

 wax, and a crystalline resin called Ceroxylin. 



Another wax-yielding Palm, attaining 200 ft., is described by Karsten (Flora 

 Columbise, i. t. 1), as Klopstockia cerifera, from the mountains in the vicinity 

 of Caracas in Venezuela, at an elevation of 5000 ft. Vegetable wax is also ob- 

 tained and used to make candles from the young leaves of Copernicia cerifera, 

 the Carnaba wax-Palm of Brazil, which are coated with it. This Palm has 

 fan-shaped leaves, and belongs to the tribe of Coryphinece. 



4. PHCENIX, Linn. 



Low shrubs or tall trees, the upper part of the stem closely covered by 

 the bases of the petioles, the lower part rough with their scars, rarely an- 

 nulate. Leaves pinnate, pinnae entire, linear, rigid, folded longitudinally 

 and attached obliquely with their folded base to the laterally-compressed 

 petiole, the lowest pinnae often transformed into spines. Petiole semi- 

 terete below the leaves, base a reticulate fibrous amplexicaul sheath. 

 Flowers dioicous ; a rigid, often woody axillary compressed peduncle, 

 bearing near its upper end numerous long slender but rigid spikes, which 

 are interrupted in the female, compact in the male inflorescence ; pedun- 

 cle enclosed in bud in a single thickly-coriaceous keeled sheath. Calyx 

 cup-shaped, 3-toothed ; petals 3, oblong and valvate in the male, ovate 

 or rounded and imbricate in the female flowers. Male flowers : Stamens 

 commonly 6, rarely 3 or 9, surrounding a rudimentary ovary. Female 

 flowers : Carpels 3, distinct, with recurved styles. Fruit a single, generally 

 oblong 1 -seeded berry. Seeds with a longitudinal furrow. Albumen 

 horny, embryo dorsal. 



Tall trees ; leaflets opposite or alternate, not fasciculate. 



Foot of stem often surrounded by root-suckers ; leaflets mak- 

 ing a very acute angle with the common petiole . . 1. P. dactylifera. 

 No root-suckers ; leaflets making half a right angle with com- 

 mon petiole 2. P. sylvestris. 



A low shrub with a bulbous stem, or a small tree with a slender 



stem ; leaflets fasciculate 3. P. acaulis. 



1. P. dactylifera, Linn.; Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 786. Vern. Khajur, 

 hhaji. The fruit : Khurma, chuhdra, Tcukyan, hhujiyan, hujran. 



A tall tree, attaining 100-120 ft., trunk covered with the persistent 

 bases of petioles, the foot often surrounded by a dense mass of root-suckers, 

 Leaves grey, longer than those of P. sylvestris ; pinnae 8-1 6 in. long, reg- 

 ularly distichous, often approximate in twos or threes on the same side 

 of petiole \ petiole grey, laterally compressed, almost flat. Male panicles 

 white, "compact, 6-9 in. long, on a short peduncle ; flowers \-\ in. long, 

 sweet-scented; sheaths outside with rusty down. Peduncles of female 

 inflorescence \-\ in. broad, sometimes broader below, spikes 12-24 in. 

 long. Fruit oblong, 1-3 in. long, generally reddish- or yellowish-brown 

 when ripe, pulp fleshy sweet. Numerous varieties cultivated, differing in 

 colour, shape, and taste of the fruit. Seed cylindric, with a longitudinal 

 furrow in front, and a small cylindric embryo in the middle of the rounded 



