THE FRUIT. T 
VIII.—The Fruit. 
The fruit of Daemonorops is extremely similar to that of several kinds of 
Calamus, but the seed has always a ruminate albumen, and a basal embryo. All 
the fruits of Daemonorops are constructed alike, I shall therefore describe only the 
fruit I have myself examined, namely, that of D. Jenkinsianus preserved in alcohol 
and received from Sikkim, through the kindness of Major Gage, Superintendent of 
the Botanical Garden of Calcutta (Pl, I, f. 9, 10). The pericarp of D. Jenkinsianus, 
like that of all the Daemonorops, is very thin ; its most noticeable part is the epicarp, 
which, as in Calamus, is formed by the well-known imbricating scales, which 
constitute an effective protection for the seed. The mesocarp and the endocarp are 
scarcely to be distinguished from each other, but together they form a parenchy- 
matic tissue barely 0'3 mm. in thickness, which consists of a few layers of very 
large and very thick-walled cells, traversed lengthwise by  fibro-vascular bundles, 
amounting altogether, between small and great, to about forty in number, 
There exists, moreover, an internal and very thin epiderm. On the removal of 
the seed several fibro-vascular bundles are readily detected within the concavity 
of the pericarp, for they stand out clearly like slender ribbons upon the surround- 
ing tissue; they start from the base of the fruit at the point which corresponds 
to the apex of the perianth, and are reunited at the apex of the pericarpal cavity 
. after having very slightly anastomosed with each other, The pericarpal cavity in 
the fruits preserved in alcohol is shiny, and is lined with a layer of a dark- 
coloured coagulated and gelatinous substance which presents no trace whatever of 
cellular structure. This layer of amorphous gelatinous substance between the walls 
of the pericarp and the seed forms a coating around the latter, which entirely 
enfolds it, and is extremely thin in certain parts, while in others it attains 0'5 to 
0'6 mm. in thickness. This gelatinous substance, which gives a tannic reaction, 
appears to have accumulated in the interstices between the cells of the ovary by 
transudation from the canals interposed between the base of the ovule and the 
ligneous rings of the axial part that carries the fruit. 
The seed has an integument of its own. This integument is fleshy and 
smooth externally ; its thickness varies from 0:7—2 mm., being in most cases rather 
thicker on the side of the raphe than elsewhere. It is derived from the external wall 
of the ovule, and is formed of a parenchymatous tissue, soft and composed of rather 
large elements, elliptical in shape, and with their greater diameter transverse to the 
fruit and having thin walls, In a tissue composed of such cells, lysigenie cavities or 
sacs form, either spherical or elliptical in section, and filled with a  mucilaginous 
substance which itself appears to be saturated with a tannic fluid. They are there- 
fore tanniferous cavities of most variable dimensions, some indeed being very large. 
Those sacs which lie nearest to the periphery show through the excessively thin 
cellular exterior layer of the integument as dark dots (at least in the fruits preserved 
in alcohol); they are scattered here and there over its surface, and are plainly 
visible to the naked eye. Between the tissue enclosing the tanniferous cavities and 
the endosperm lies a tissue void of such cavities and formed of a few layers of cells 
which are also parenchymatic and thin-walled, and the longes$ diameter of which is normal 
