SPADICIFLOK^:. 



391 



PALMACILE. PALMS. 



Coh. Palmales, Benth. et Hook. 



Diagnosis. Trees or shrubs, mostly with a simple unbranched 

 trunk (fig. 478), occasionally slightly ramified, -p- 475 



with large terminal clusters of mostly compound, 

 or deeply divided stalked leaves, the stalks 

 sheathing at the base ; flowers unisexual or per- 

 fect, with a double 3-merous herbaceous perianth, 

 on a mostly branched scaly spadix enclosed by 

 spathe (fig. 475) ; stamens 6, hypogynous or 

 perigynous ; ovary of 1-3 free or coherent car- 

 pels ; ovules solitary, rarely two ; fruit baccate ; 

 seeds with a minute embryo imbedded super- 

 ficially in horny, fleshy, or bony perisperm. 

 Illustrative Genera : Chamcedorea, Willd.; Areca, 

 L. ; Ceroxylon, H. & B. ; Caryota, L. ; Calamus, 

 L. ; Sac/us, Grsertn. ; Borassus, L. ; Lodoicea, La- 

 bill. ; Sabal, Adans. ; Chamcerops, L. ; Rhapis, 

 L. fil. ; Phoenix, L. ; Attalea, H. B. K. ; Elais, 

 Jacq. ; Gocos, L. 



Affinities, &c. The Palms form a very natural 

 Order, including a great number of plants varying 

 to a considerable extent among themselves, but sepa- 



, , , . . . P ,, . .** Snathe and branched 



rated by very distinct characters from the rest of the 8 padix of Astrowryum 

 Monocotyledons. They as a rule, assume an arbores- vulgare. 

 cent character, the stem being formed on the same fundamental plan as 

 those occasionally occurring in other Orders of Monocotyledons : the stem 

 of the Calamoid Palms bears much resemblance to that of the Bamboo 

 among the Grasses ; the forms with scarcely developed internodes, marked 

 externally by the scars of the fallen leaves, agree essentially with those of 

 Yucca, Xanthorrhcea, &c., except that the fibrous cortical region is little de- 

 veloped and does not exhibit growth by successive layers as in those plants ; 

 the Hyphcenes, which have a branched stern, seem to ramify in the same 

 way as the Vellosiae, by a bifurcation resulting from the occasional develop- 

 ment of an axillary bud, which manifests a power of growth equal, or 

 nearly so, to that of the terminal bud. The ramification of the trunks 

 above ground is a rare phenomenon ; but it is very common for suckers to 

 he sent out from the bases of the stems below the soil, imitating on a 

 large scale the appearance of the young bulbs around the parent in the 

 herbaceous Monocotyledons. The parenchymatous substance of the stem, 

 in which the fibrous structures are imbedded, varies much in consistence : 

 sometimes it becomes lignified, and gives a solid character to the trunk, 

 as in the Cocoa-nut Palm ; sometimes it is soft and spongy internally, as 

 in the Sago-palms, becoming filled at certain seasons with starch. " The 

 spadiciform inflorescence, unfolding from within a large foliaceous spathe, 

 connects the Palms with the Aracese, a relationship further indicated by 



