E. insignis. ] EUGEISSONA. 203 
acuminate, slightly discoloured apices. The endocarpal cavity is divided into six in- 
complete dissepiments, three penetrating very deeply nearly to the centre of the fruit, 
and three being somewhat shorter; the three principal dissepiments are deeply 
sulcate along their internal margin or in transverse section bi-lobed at the free end. 
Seed moulded to the endo-carpal cavity, and therefore marked with six furrows, 
of which three are deeper than the others; wall of the pericarp 5—6 mm. thick 
on the whole ; the endocarp alone 1°5 mm. thick. 
HanrrAT.—I have found this palm common in Borneo on the banks of the 
Upper Rejang, in the Kayan and Punan country, especially near houses where 
this palm receives a rudimentary eulture for the sake of the Sago flour obtainable 
from its trunk. Probably for this same reason it is a plant more diffused through- 
out central Borneo than other species of the same genus. To this same species 
probably also belong the Zugeissona trees I have seen growing in abundance on the 
hills bordering the Bruni river in North Borneo, and on the elevated part of Pulo 
(Island) Burung, near the mouth of the Batang Lupar. Native name “ Kadjattao" 
{Beccari P. B. No. 3812.) 7 
The tree reproduces itself with great facility by seed, anl it is of Very rapid 
growth, in five years in good soil coming to bloom, which is the proper time 
for the extraction of the fecula. The pollen, which is produced in prodigious quantity, 
is also used as food by the natives. 
OBSERVATIONS.—It is distinguishable by its naked trunk, furnished. at the base 
with short roots, and rough all over from tuberculiform, subspiny, adventitious 
rootlets ; by the equidistant leaflets bristly on three nerves above; by the very large 
cupressiform spadix ; by the flowers (75—8 cm. long) having the corolla entire 
in its lowermost third part ; by the very numerous stamens (about 70); by the 
acutely trigonous, 2 mm. long style ; by the fruit, ovoid, circular in transverse 
section, 8—10 em. long, 5—5'5 em. through, shortly and stoutly beaked- with six 
incomplete dissepiments ; by the very small scales, mm. wide ; by the pericarp 
5—6 mm. thick on the whole, the endocarp alone being 1°5 mm. thick. 
PLate. 117.—Eugeissona utilis JBecc.—Intermediate portion of a leaf ; flower- 
bearing branch ; two entire fruits; the nucleus alone of one fruit spontaneously 
divested of its mesocarp; transverse section of the nucleus (the seed rotten). From 
Beccari's P. B. No. 3812. 
- 
5. EvuGrIssona INSIGNIS Becc. in Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital. iii, 22. 
Descriprion.—Palm of the general habit of a Sago tree, 12—15 m. high on 
the whole, the stem alone 7—8 m. high, emitting from its base numerous strong 
aerial roots, 1—3 m. long. The stem is cylindrical but is. entirely covered by 
the persistent bases of the leaves, which fall down only in the last stage of the 
life of the plant when the fruits are ripening. The leaves are distinctly 3-seriate, 
following gentle spirals along the trunk; they are (including the petioles) 6—8 m. 
long, erect, and appressed a long way along the trunk but spreading their feathery 
upper part; the leafsheaths are spinous, elongate and costulate on the middle of 
the dorsum, and owing to their 3-seriate arrangement give an acutely trigonous 
appearance to the entire trunk; the petiole is elongate and  powérfully armed. 
especially near the base, with laminar, very rigid, black spines 2—4 cm. long, the 
LI 
ANN. Roy. Bor. GARD., CALCUTTA, VOL. XII. 
