186 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [M. vitiense 
(5—6 mm. long in the specimens seen by me, but are perhaps larger when full 
grown); the calyx cyathiform, smooth, with 3 broad rounded lobes ; the wool is not 
produced beyond the spathels even during the anthesis. Fruit globular or globular 
ovoid, having a rounded (not hollowed) base, and narrowing a little above, or very 
broadly conical in their upper part and minutely mucronulate at the apex; they 
are 5'5—6:'5 cm. long, and 45—6 cm. broad; scales in about. 28 longitudinal 
series, glossy, uniformly  straw-coloured and narrowly discoloured on the edges, 
rather deeply and narrowly grooved along the centre, broader than long, the largest 
10—11 mm. broad in the exposed part; are prolonged into a short bluntish point, 
their extreme margins are erose-toothed. Pericarp 4—5 mm. thick on the whole at 
the sides; the  mesocarp corky. Seed globose, erect, the hilum exactly basal, 
orbicular ; integument thin and adherent at the sides of the nucleus, but thick 
above; the nucleus alone slightly depressed, 4 cm. high, and 27—28 mm. across ; 
it has a large and deep orbicular chalazal cavity, 12—15 mm. in diameter, slightly 
restrained at the mouth; the albumen is ivory-like, horse-shoe-shaped in vertical 
section,’ with walls 10—12 mm. thick. Embryo exactly basal, its position visible 
outside, being immersed in a pit-like depression, 5 mm. wide; the embryo cavity is 
ovate-conical, 6 mm. deep. ` : 
Hasirat.—The Fiji Islands. It grows in swampy places in Viti Levu, Vanua 
Levu, and Ovalau; but is not found in Kadavu, the southern Island of the group 
(Seemann). It is said that a Sago Palm, supposed identical with M. vitiense, was 
observed. by Dr. Bennett in Ratuma, one of the smaller islands of the group. 
Native name in Fiji “Sagu” (pronounced ‘ Songa ”).- The nuts furnish a kind 
of vegetable ivory, but are much less valued than those of M. amicarum and 
M. salomonense on account of their considerably smaller size. 
OssERVATIONS.—] have seen portions of Seemann’s type specimens in the 
Herbarium at Berlin, and have based the description of the general habit of the 
palm on the original letter of Seemann to H. Wendland which is attached to 
those specimens. I have taken advantage also of some photographs taken in Fiji 
by Miss L. Gibbs. I purchased the fruits from a seed merchant. M. vitiense is 
. the type upon which H. Wendland established the genus Celococcus; but in fact 
it does not differ from the common Metroxylons except in having a greater number 
ót scales on the pericarp. The inflorescence of M. vitiense also slightly differs from 
that of M. Rumphü and M. Sagus in having a main elongate axis, from which the 
primary divisions start; whereas in M. Rumphii and allied species, the main axis 
of the inflorescenée appears much abbreviated, and the primary branches spring 
from the axillas of the uppermost approximate leaves. 
The species is particularly characterized by the form of the inflorescence, and. 
by the globular-ovoid fruit with broadly conical apex and rounded base. 
PLare 110.—Metroxylon vitiense Benth. et Hook. f.—One of the secondary or 
spike-bearing branches with very young flowers, just appearing outside the spathels ; 
one leaflet of an adult plant from Seemann’s specimens in the Herbarium at 
Berlin. Fruits (purchased); one cut vertically and with the seed entire in situ ; 
others entire, and one. having the seed cut vertically through the embryo; a 
vertical section of an isolated seed. © 
f 
