78 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



Description. — Stems 8-15 feet high, usualty gregarious, marked 

 below with the scars of the fallen leaves, above rough from the 

 persistent bases of the petioles. Leaves orbicular, 3-5 feet in 

 diameter, peltate, 12-30 partite, segments variously connate, many 

 toothed at the apex, teeth ^-2 inches, very variable in length and 

 breadth, obtusely 2-fid. Petiole 6-7 feet long, triangular, armed 

 throughout along the margins, especially towards the base, with 

 stout, horny, black, very sharp, conical, and rather curved spines. 

 Spadix erect, longer than the leaves, stout, simply branched, 

 sprinkled in the upper parts with brown scurf. Spathes tubular, 

 6-12 inches long, i-f inch broad, mouth irregularly^ toothed or 

 lobed, at length variously split, and similarl}' scurfy. Spikes 3-5, 

 solitary, 6-12 inches long, nodding-pendulous, centrifugally 

 developed, fulvous-tomentose, adnate to the axis to about the 

 middle of the spathe. Flowers numerous, on short stalks, 

 solitary, very large, of a greenish-white colour, covered externallj^ 

 with the same pubescence as the spike, opening centrifugally. 

 Calyx campanulate, shortly 3-toothed. Petals ^-^ inch long, 

 lanceolate, coriaceous, reflexed. Stamens 6 ; filaments united 

 among each other, and to the corolla as far as the base of its 

 segments, thence free, long, stout, piano-subulate, keeled along 

 the back.; anthers linear, cordate, exserted, attached near the 

 middle ; otherwise the cells are neai'l)?" distinct. Ovarj^ turbites, 

 short, with a depressed apex ; carpels cohering by their apices. 

 Ovules solitarj', erect, anatropous. Style filiform, slender, 3 

 times longer than the ovary. Stigma obsoletely 3-toothed, on a 

 level with the anthers. Fruit \ inch long, ellipsoid, narrowed 

 equally at both ends, orange coloured, one-seeded, apiculate by the 

 persistent base of the style, and crowned with the 2-abortive carpels, 

 surrounded at the base by the perianth, the tube of the calyx 

 resembling a short pedicel. Seed oblong, with the intruded hilar 

 process dilated within. Albumen horny. Embryo dorsal, situated 



