MONOCOTYLEDONEJE. 41 



whole dies. Such are only temporary beings, and 

 are those in which the fructification is terminal and 

 solitary. No latent gems are seated in the roots or 

 stem ; nor are there branches or buds. The growth 

 is a continuous procession from the seed to the 

 ripening of the fruit, the leaves being developed in 

 succession. The bases of the petioles are articulated * 

 with the axis, but are very persistingly united to each 

 other, and aggregately form the exterior of the 

 stem in the early stage of its growth. Hence it 

 appears that the seedling palm is composed of roots 

 which take a potent hold of the soil ; a thick invest- 

 ment of many, probably a certain number of leaves, 

 enclosing the fructification in their centre. As the 

 growth advances the exterior leaves are first ex- 

 panded, followed by the next within, and so pro- 

 gressively till the last, evolving the spatha, is 

 developed. During all this time the fructification 

 is gradually rising and keeping pace with, but always 

 some distance below, the tufts of fronds, till it nearly 

 gains the summit, when, on the parting of the last 

 leaves, the spatha, containing the fructification, 

 comes forth, and bending with its own weight hangs 

 gracefully below the foot-stalks of the leaves, where 



* From the appearance of the Phcenix, Cocus, and several 

 other palms in India, it is not evident that the fronds articulate with 

 the stem ; but it is affirmed by some botanists, that, after a long 

 period of time, their bases at last fall off and leave the stem smooth 

 and regularly scarred like the Bambusa. 



