202 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [E. utilis. 
by its corolla being entire in its lowermost third part; by the stamens being 
relatively not very numerous (about 24 in 3 groups); by its fruit elongate and 
stoutly beaked and with six dissepiments; by the style 3°5 mm. long and trigonous ; 
by the scales slighly excavate at the base and 1°5 mm. wide; finally by its leaflets 
having the mid-costa only slightly spinulous on the upper surface near the apex, 
instead of having the long setae of the other species in that part. 
PraATrE 116.—Eugeissona minor Beee.—Upper end of a leaf; an entire spadix 
with unopened flowers; upper part of a spadix at the time that ovaries are ready 
(apparently) for pollination ; two fruits entire, dnd transverse section of another not 
thoroughly mature. From the type specimens Beccaris P. B. No. 2444. 
4. EvcEISSONA UrILIS Becc. in Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital iii, 26. 
DescRIPTION.—A fine palm, 12—15 m. high on the whole. The stem is straight, 
cylindrical, furnished at the base with a mass of numerous short roots (not 
propped by aerial roots), and more or Jess stripped of leaves to a considerable 
height at times as high as 9 m. up, the oldest leaves being naturally deciduous ; 
the surface of the stem is marked by the scars left by the fallen leaves, and 
roughened by numerous short, subspiny, abortive, adventitious roots. Leaves large, 
the inner spreading, the lower arched and recurved; petiole elongate, glabrous, 
armed on its lower part with scattered flat, laminar, black, rather short, 10—12 mm. 
long spines; higher up it is smooth or nearly so, where it is flat on the upper 
surface, but with an obtuse angle on the lower, so that in transverse section it 
is trigonous ; the rhachis is also glabrous and unarmed, and has an ‘acute salient 
angle above. Leaflets very numerous, equidistant, narrow, subulately acuminate, 
furnished on the upp2r surface with long bristles on the mid-costa and also on a 
slender nerve near each margin ; the lower leaflets and central leaflets are 40—45 cm. 
long, 20—22 mm. broad, the upper ones gradually smaller. Spadix very large, 
cupressiform, rising erect from the centre of the crown and composed of numerous 
main branches, appressed to the main axis in their basal part, but arched and 
spreading above; they bear unilaterally at every spathe a secondary branch 
with many flowers at their basal part, but with fewer flowers above; spathes of 
the branches smooth. The anthodia are shortly pedicellate, and formed of 12—13 
‘spathels, are oblong, slightly ventricose, about 4 cm. long, 12—13 mm. across. 
The fully developed flowers are 8—9 cm. long including the anthodium; the ‘flowers 
alone measure 7°5—8 cm. ; the calyx is tubular campanulate, 25 mm. long, 3 toothed, 
the teeth deltoid, acute; the corolla at first is entire ‘to nearly the fourth of its 
lower part, later it splits completely open; the divisions of the corolla are narrow, 
faleiform and pungent, purplish-black and vernicosa outside, concave and striate 
inside; the part which protrudes beyond the anthodium is 4—5 cm. in length. 
Stamens numerous (about 70), unequal in length; the anthers very narrowly linear, 
about 3 cm. long; the pollen violaceous. Ovary (at the time of the maturity of 
the anthers) small, turbinate; about 1 cm. long, the style 2 mm. long, very 
acutely trigonous,  papillose-stigmatiferous on the angles. Fruit 8—10 cm. long, 
5—5°5 em. across, obovate, tapering a little below, circular in transverse section, 
very suddenly contracted above into a very stout, obtusely-trigonous-pyramidate 
rostrum (15 mm, long) blunt, and terminated by the persistent very small style ; Scales 
extremely minute and numerous, about one-third of a mm. wide, produced into long 
