THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 3-^1 



Description. — Stem 40-80 feet high, cjdiiidrical, slender, red- 

 Ijrown, annulate. Leaves in a dense oblong crown; petiole spread- 

 ing and decurved, spinous on the margins ; blade 3-4 feet in 

 diameter, orbicular, cut to about the middle into 30-50 radiating 

 slender bifid lobes, the acuminate points of which do not droop. 

 Spathes 6-10 inches long, lanceolate, compressed, acuminate, rigid- 

 ly leathery, tomentose. Spadix 3-4 feet long, decurved, much 

 paniculately branched, the branches and branchlets curved and 

 slender, quite glabrous, rachis compressed. Flowers minute, 

 I" inch in diameter, spiked upon the very slender, terminal branch- 

 lets, green. Calyx of 3 short very broad, obtuse segments. Corolla 

 of 3 triangiilar-ovate, flesli}^, coriaceous, valvate, siibacute petals. 

 Stamens 6 ; filaments very broad and short ; anthers subgiobose. 

 Pistillode 3 cleft. Fruit globose, f inch in diameter; pericarp thick, 

 crustaceous, granular outside with a smooth buff", obscurely veined 

 inner surface ; remains of stigma evanescent. Seed globose, testa 

 pale brown, smooth ; chalaza a brown, subterminal, large, polished 

 areole ; albiimen very hard, white, not ruminate, with a broad, 

 sack-like canal passing from the chalaza to the centre, and full 

 of corky brown tissue ; embryo dorsal above the base. 



Germination. — In the beginning the embrjro becomes longer and 

 grows thicker at the base in consequence of the plumule, developing 

 in the interior of the cotyledonal sheath. The axis of the plumule 

 does not coincide with that of the embryo, as it passes laterally 

 through the cotyledonal slit. The embrji^o has the shape of a 

 • cupule. 



The first leaf is reduced to a sheath, the second shows the limb 

 spread out. 



At the base of the first root some lateral roots are developed which 

 are thin and caducous. Gatin observed in a fourteen months' 

 old plant the formation of a new lateral root, which was stronger 

 than the first and destined, in the course of time, to exercise the 

 function of the principal root. 



Habitat. — The most southern palm of the Australian continent, 

 reaching the snowy range in lat. 37° 30' S, when its stem attains 

 80 feet in height, and extending thence along the west coast to the 

 Illawarra Eiver, in lat. 34° 45' S. 



