THE PALMS OJF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 



373 



Description. — Trunk slender, at least 65 feet high. Petioles, 

 rather convex on the upper surface, 2^-3^ feet long, about 4 

 inches wide at the brown base and -J as wide at the blade, the 

 corneous margins armed with short hooked yellow spines for the 

 entire length, accuminately prolonged in the blade ; ligule papy- 

 raceous, narrow, the margin entire ; blade 2f -3^ feet in diame- 

 ter, the folds 75-80, deciduously tomentose toward the base 

 beneath, cleft little more than ^ toward the base, not filiferous' 

 except for an occasional single filament in the sinuses of some of 

 the folds. 



Peduncles declined, exceeding the leaves ; primary divisions 

 6r8, each bearing 5-10 separated thyrses, which are mostly 

 exceeded by their narrow, deciduous, chairtaceous bracts. Flowers 

 nearly sessile. Calix tubular-campanulate, §■ inch long, the short 

 rounded lobes lacerate. Corolla-tube |- inch long, its lobes erect, 

 narrowly lanceolate, ^^ - ^^ inch long. Filaments subulate, \ 

 inch long; anthers versatile, \ inch long, (Fig. 22.) 



Fig. 22. — Flower of Washingionia gracilis Parish. 

 \ X 5 f After Parish ) 



Seeds broadly ovate, -^^ - -^^ inch long and \ inch broad, 

 rugose on the side of the raphe. 



This palm is readily distinguished from W. filifera and its 

 varieties by its slender trunk and smaller and less deeply divided 

 leaves, which are without filaments and on shorter petioles. 



Beccari (1. c.) regards this palm as a variety of W. robusta. 



