dl ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. P. pierreana. 
petiole is reduced almost to nothing ; the pinniferous part is very short, the rhachis 
is unarmed on both surfaces, subterete, slightly and narrowly grooved on the upper 
surface. Leaflets not numerous, approximate in pairs or in threes on each side of 
the rhachis, very narrowly lanceolate, 15—25 cm. long, 12—18 mm. at their widest, 
narrowing below to an acute base and very gradually upwards to a slender very 
acuminate tip, rigid, papyraceous, slightly paler underneath than above, with the mid- 
costa prominent only near the base, and the margins more or less thickened. Male 
spadix . . . . Female spadix as usual branched ; one branch issuing from a leaf is at 
first erect and is divided at different levels into 3 spikes, pendulous from a rather 
elongate curved basilar part, which is sheathed by several spathels not bearing 
spikelets; the lowest of these spathes is elongately tubular, the following are 
obconical and obliquely truncate at their mouths; the flower-bearing portion of ` 
the spike is, in two specimens, 35 em. long; its main axis is slightly sinuous, 
obsoletely-trigonous, rusty-furfuraceous ; the spathels are 12—16 mm. apart, 3 cm. 
long, 2 em. wide, obovoid-oblong, with their upper part broadly triangular from a 
little above the middle, acute at apex, thinly papery, very finely striate on both 
surfaces, apparently glabrous externally (I have seen only those of the fruiting 
spadices, much deteriorated by age). Fruit spherical, 2 cm. in diameter, abruptly 
beaked from the remains of the stigmas, of a slightly squarrose and not woolly 
appearance; scales arranged in 42—44 vertical series, rather glossy, of a deep straw, 
or reddish brown colour with either darker or chestnut brown margins, their points 
triangular, somewhat proluced or acuminate and, like the margins, very finely 
ciliate fringed; the scales of the upper half of the fruit applied; those of the 
lower half very slightly raised. Seed globular, somewhat depressed, #.e., slightly 
broader than high, 14—15 mm. broad, 11—11°5 mm. high ; its surface even but rendered 
rough from the thin, very adherent, dry integument; raphe indistinct ; chalazal fovea 
inconspicuous, punetiform, quite superficial ; albumen bony, homozenous ; embryo basal. 
Fruiting perianth quite explanate and sessile on its pedicel; the calyx small 
7—8 mm. across, with 3 deltoid acute or acuminate teeth, usually split in the sinuses ; 
the petals lanceolate with more or less falcate acuminate points, about 1 cm. long, 
3—3°5 mm. wide at the base, three times as long as the calyx; the sterile stamens 
form with the confluent broadened .bases..of the filaments a flat stellate disk 
divided into 6 deltoid subulate tecth, STE small sterile, sagittate, distinetly 
biauricled anthers. | 
Hasrrat.—Indo-China: On the mountains of Cam-cháy at 900 m. elevation in 
che Province of Kampuh in Cambodia (Pierre No. 4857 in the Paris Herbarium and 
from the same source, Herb. Hance No. 19241 in the British Museum Herbarium). 
Osservations.—It is perhaps the smallest species of the genus, closely related 
to P. Kerrana, and apparently derived from P. khasyana. It is characterized by 
the leaflets being paler beneath than above (not mealy or powdery white beneath); 
by the spathels being glabrous, obovoid-oblong, about twice as long as broad; by 
the female spikes having a rusty furfuraceous axis; by the fruit being not wooly 
but slightly squarrose, exactly spherical, covered by scales having finely ciliate 
margins, and slightly produced, acuminate, minutely ciliate fringed points; by the 
globular seed slightly broader than high; and by ‘the’ explanate fruiting perianth 
with trigonous, 3-toothed calyx, and the corolla three times as long as the calyx. 
