Phoenix.] . LXXVII. PALM.E. 555 



into the trunk, which then bleeds for some time, a thin slice being taken off 

 every day from the surface of the cut. When the bleeding stops the tree is 

 allowed a short rest, after which it is cut again and begins to bleed afresh. In 

 the ensuing year the tree is allowed rest, and in the third season a notch is cut 

 on the opposite side of the trunk. This is the account given by Martin (Drury, 

 Useful Plants of India, 340), and he adds that a tree is fit to be cut when ten 

 years old, and continues to yield for about twenty years. The juice is either 

 fermented or boiled down into sugar and molasses, and a large portion of the 

 sugar made in Bengal, on the Coromandel coast, and in Guzerat, comes from 

 this source. The wood of the Khajur is lighter than that of Borassus and 

 Gocos, 39 lb., value of P. 512 (Skinner). The vascular bundles are not black, 

 but light-brown. It is used for building, water-tubes, and other purposes. 



Koxburgh describes the leaves of P. sylvestris as standing in subopposite fas- 

 cicles, pointing four ways. This to a certain extent is the case in young leaves 

 and leaves of young trees, but on full-grown trees the leaflets are always dis- 

 tichous, opposite or alternate. Dalzell (Bombay Flora, 278), points out the 

 mistake. 



P. humilis, Koyle, is probably synonymous with P. sylvestris. Madden, 

 Journ. As. Soc. xviii. 629, states that at Almora the fruit ripens in July and is 

 then of a black purple colour, sweet, and eaten ; and that on warm aspects and 

 in, a dwarfed state it reaches 7000 ft. on Binsur. It is for farther inquiry 

 whether the black-fruited kind of the North -West Himalaya is a distinct 

 species (see below P. acaulis var. melanocarpa and P. farinifera, Roxb.) 



3. P. acaulis, Roxb. j F. Hamilton in Linn. Soc. Trans, xv. 88 ; Eoxb. 

 Fl. Ind. 783 ; Griff. Calc. Journ. v. 345 ; Palms, t. 228. Dwarf Date 

 Palm. Vern. Khajuri, pind khajur, jangli khajur. 



A low Palm with a thick, short, ovoid stem like a bulb, densely covered 

 with the persistent and hardened bases of petioles. Leaves 2-6 ft. long, 

 petiole flat below, laterally compressed or 4-sided above ; pinnae narrow- 

 linear in remote, nearly opposite fascicles, the upper 12-18 in. long, the 

 lower short, straight, rigid, and ending in sharp spines. Flower-panicles 

 of varying length, half buried in the ground, or peduncle 1-2 ft. long. 

 Fruit ovoid, J in. long, fleshy, bright red, sweetish. A variety with 

 black fruit is described by Griffith (Calc. Journ. v. 346) as P. acaulis 

 var. melanocarpa. 



Common on dry stony ground in the sub-Himalayan and Siwalik tract, ex- 

 tending west to the Jumna, and ascending to 2500 ft.- Often associated with 

 Sal and Pinus longifolia. Abundant in the Sal forests of Oudh and the Satpura 

 range. Chota Nagpur, Behar, Sikkim Terai, and Sal forests of the Run jit 

 valley (JShaap of the Lepchas, Hooker). Ein or Dipterocarpus forest of 

 Burma. Fl. cold season ; fr. ripens April, May. 



To P. acaulis I am inclined to refer two species described by Griffith in 

 Palms of East India, p. 138, 139, P. Ouseleyana from Chota Nagpur and Assam, 

 and P. pedunculata, common and very gregarious on open ground of the hilly 

 country about Courtallum and Kunur on the Nilgiris, at 6000 ft. elevation, 

 both stemless with fasciculate leaflets and long fruit peduncles (fruit red and 

 sweet in pedunculata). Gaertner's P. pusilla (Fruct. p. 24, t. 9), seems to be 

 near this, but his specimens are said to have come from Ceylon, where only P. 

 sylvestris is reported to grow (Thwaites, Enum. PI. 329). Whether the Palm 

 described doubtfully as P. acaulis, in Bentham's Fl. Hongkong. 340, belongs 

 to this species, remains for farther inquiry. 



