PALMACE^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 343. 



SAGUS. 



Leaves pinnated. Flowers monoecious. $ Calyx 3-toothed. 

 Petals 3. Stamens 6-12, with distinct compressed filaments. 

 ? Calyx 3-toothed. Corolla campanulate, 3-fid. Cup of sta- 

 mens 6-toothed, with abortive sagittate anthers. Ovary 

 3-celled. Stigmas 3, subulate, connate. Fruit 1 -seeded, coated 

 by a mail of reversed scales. Albumen ruminated. Embryo 

 dorsal, upon an umbilical pit. 



1229. S. laevis Jack in Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 266. Common 

 in Sumatra and Molucca. (Rambiya Malay.) 



The stem which is about as thick as that of the Cocoa-nut tree, is 

 annulated by the vestiges of the fallen leaves, and the upper part is com- 

 monly invested with their withered sheaths. The leaves resemble those 

 of the Cocoa-nut, but grow more erect, and are much more persistent, 

 so the foliage has not the same tufted appearance, but has more of the 

 graceful ascending curve of that of the Saguerus Rumphii : they are pin- 

 nate, unarmed ; the leaflets linear, acute, carinate, and smooth. The tree 

 is from 15 to 20 years in coming to maturity, the fructification then 

 appears, and it soon after decays and dies. The inflorescence is ter- 

 minal ; several spadices rise from the summit of the stem, enveloped in 

 sheaths at their joints, and alternately branched. It is on these branches 

 that the flowers and fruit are produced, and they are generally from 5 to 

 8 inches in length. They are of a brown colour, and closely imbricated 

 with broad scariose scales, within which is a quantity of dense ferru- 

 ginous wool in which the minute flowers are imbedded and completely 

 concealed. Each scale supports 2 flowers, which are hermaphrodite, 

 and scarcely larger than a grain of turnip-seed. The perianth has 

 6 leaves, of which 3 are interior, the leaflets nearly equal. Stamina 6; 

 filaments very short ; anthers oblong, 2-celled. Ovaries 3, connected 

 together in the middle, each monosporous. Style 0. Stigma small. 

 Fruit single, nearly globular, somewhat depressed at the summit, but 

 with a short, acute mucro or point in the centre ; it is covered with 

 scales which are imbricated from the top to the bottom, and are shining, 

 of a greenish straw-colour, of a rhomboidal shape, and with a longitu- 

 dinal furrow down their middle. Below the scales the rind is of a 

 spongy consistence, and the fruit contains a single seed of rather an 

 irregular shape, and having the umbilicus situated laterally a little above 

 the base of the fruit. The progress of the fruit to maturity is very 

 slow, and is said, according to the best information I can obtain, to 

 occupy about 3 years from the first appearing of the spadices to the 

 final ripening of the fruit. During the period of inflorescence the 

 branches of the spadix are brown, and apparently quite bare. Afterwards 

 a number of small green knobs appear above the brown scales, which go 

 581 p p 3 



