THE PALMS 01 BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 377 



decurved angled or compressed, bearing nnmeroiis slender densel^y 

 flowered secondary braiaches in the axils of ovate apiculate scarious 

 persistent bracts ; spathes numerous, the outer acuminate, enclosing' 

 the spadix in the bud, persistent on its peduncle, becoming hard 

 and woody at maturity ; the second tubular, conspicuously veined, 

 thick and firm in texture, and scarious oblique at the apex, J)rO- 

 longed on the lower side into a long narroAV point, infolding the 

 base of the rhachis, each branch with its short thin spathe and the 

 node of the rhachis below it enclosed in a smaller although other- 

 wise similar spathe. Flowers perfect, minute, glabrous, white or 

 greenish white, solitary on the ultimate branches of the spadix 

 bibracteolate, in the axils of minute ovate acute persistent bracts. 

 Calyx tubular, truncate at the base, unequally three-lobed, the 

 lobes slightly imbricated in aestivation, acute. Corolla deeply -3- 

 lobed, narrowed at the base into a short tube, the lobes ovate- 

 oblpng, concave, acute, in the bud slightly imbricated below, valvate 

 at the apex. Stamens 6, those opposite the petals rather longer 

 than, the others ; filaments white, subulate, dilated at the base, 

 united into a shallow cup adnate to the tube of the corolla ; anthers 

 ovate, acute, bright yellow, dorsifixed, introrse, 2-celled, the cells 

 free and spreading at the base, opening longitudinally. Ovary 

 superior, sessile, composed of 3 carpels, 3-celled, gradually narrowed : 

 into an elongated 3-lobed columnar style, truncate and stigmatic at 

 the apex, becoming subbasilar on the fruit ; ovule solitary in 'each.. , 

 cell, basilar, erect, semianatropous ; micropyle superior, extl'orse. 

 Fruit small, baccate, or obovate and gradually narrowed below, 

 black and rather lustrous, 1 or rarely 2-3-lobed, raised on a short 

 stout stem adjacent to the remnants of the style ; pericarp separable 

 into 3 coats, the outer thin, sweet and fleshy, mesocarp dry and 

 spongy, closely investing the membranaceous inner coat, lustrous 

 on the inner surface. Seed depressed-globose, free, erect, marked 

 on the side by the prominent micropyle, depressed near th& 

 minute basal light-coloured hilum by a shallow pit rugose on the 

 margins ; testa thin, light or dark chestnut-brown, and lustrous ;. 

 raphe basilar, its branches obsolete ; albumen uniform, horny, 

 penetrated by a broad shallow basal cavity filled by the thickening 

 of the testa.^Embryo minute, lateral or subdorsal. 



