36 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. P. himalayana. 
sheaths glaucous-green, smooth, except the margins of the V-shaped slit sheath 
or stipule; infrutescence terminal, smooth, 10 feet long, the lower branches arising 
from the uppermost smaller leaf-stalks, 3 feet long. few branched and ascending 
from near. the base; the branchlets pendulous, evenly provided with bracts and 
fruits ; fruits flattish-globose 1 inch across." : 
Native name ‘ Ungang." 
PLatE 22.—Plectocomia Elmerii Bece.—An entire female spike, and the end of 
another with flowers; two fruits, and one seed; portion of a leaf from near the 
base. Elmer’s specimen No. 11877 in Herb. Beccari. 
LariN pIAGNosis.—Plectocomia Elmerii Becc sp. nov. 
Grandis, caudice vaginato 10 em. diam.; frondium segmentis per greges approxi- 
matis, utrinque glabris et virentibus ; spicarum foeminearum spathis rhombeis, glabris ; 
floribus foemineis majuseulis ; calyce parte pedicellari trigona-elongata, basi sensim 
attenuata, praedito, limbo 3-partito, segmentis acuminatis longitudinem corolla fere 
aequantibus ; fructibus globoso-subdepressis, breviter mammillatis, glabris, squamis 
nitidis in medio distincte sulcatis et in margine ciliolatis ; semine globoso-depresso, 
superficie inaequali. 
7. PLecrocoMIA HIMALAYANA Griff in Cale. Journ, Nat. Hist. v, 100: Palms 
Brit, Ind.: 108, 01.218; Mart. Hist.: Nat. Palm. ii, 129 T. Anders 
in Journ. Linn. Soc. xi, 12; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 478; Brandis, 
Ind. Trees, 619; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timb. 2nd ed. 737: Darj. 
List, 87. | 
P. montana Hook. f. & Thoms. Herb. Ind. Orient. 
/ 
Descriprion.—A very large and high climbing gregarious. palm. ^ Seathed stem 
of the flowering end as thick as a man's arm; the naked canes as much as 4 
em. in diameter, with internodes about 30 cm. in length. Leaves large, those of 
the adult flowering plant 2—2°5 m. long in the pinniferous part, and terminated 
by a long powerfully clawed cirrus; the petiolar part almost reduced to nothing, 
the lowest leaflets being attached just at the mouth of the leaf-sheaths, which 
are thickly coriaceous or almost woody and provided with obliquely encircling 
transverse, approximate, interrupted, sinuous, raised ridges, minutely muricate on 
their crest; in younger leaves the leaf-sheaths gradually pass into a more or less 
elongate petiole, are finely covered with soft greyish down, are coarsely and closely 
striate, and have the encircling elevated ridges very regularly crested with pectinate, 
feeble, brownish, needle-like spines, 15—20 mm. leng.. The rhachis of the upper 
leaves of the adult plant is 2 cm. broad at its base, flattish on the upper surface ; 
the sides where the leaflets are inserted are rounded; higher up, the rhachis is 
biconvex, and from the middle upwards it is armed beneath with, at first, 
solitary, then with 2—3-nate robust claws, becoming half whorled at regular distances 
in the cirrus; in leaves of young plants the rhachis is puberulous and armed 
beneath with claws having a longer tip than usual; the cirrus is slender and 
