THE PAZyiS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 537 



1878, 214 ; H. Wencll. in Kerch. Palm. 221 ; Drude in Mart. Fl. Bras. 

 Ill, pt. II, 412 ; Becc. Le Palme incluse nel gen. cocos in Malpighia, anno 

 I. fasc. VIII, 27 — Cocos cowiosa Parlatore (wore Martins) Les collect, bot. t. II. 



Name. — Featlieiy-flowered Coco-ntit. 



Description. — Stem graceful erect, cohimnuar, about 40 feet 

 high, 10-12 inches in diameter, more slender upwards, jointed as it 

 were with annular scars of the fallen leaf-stalks ; these rings are 

 1 foot to 14 inches apart. Crown of leaves extremely beautiful: 

 leaves 12-15 feet long, petiolate, lanceolate, pinnate, recurved;, 

 leaflets numeroas, solitary, or more usually two to four aggregated, 

 springing from near each other ; petiole subtriangular at the base, 

 very much dilated, of a greyish-brown colour, keeled, at the margin 

 fimbriately fibrous, amplexicaul. 



Spadix axillary, substipitate ; spathe 2-|-3 feet long, ligneous at 

 first, at length bursting open laterally, concave and fusiform, almost 

 woody, very erect, rigid, firm, dark dirty-green externally, within 

 tawnj^, acute and apiculate; branches numerous, long, gracefully 

 drooping, wax-like, loaded with flowers of two kinds which are 

 sessile ; some female, but mostly male. 



Flowers in bud conical, sepals complete^ imbricated ; petals ovate, 

 concave, moderately patent, with minute bracts at the base- Male 

 flowers with 6 oblong yellow anthers on short filaments. Female- 

 with a short downy ovary, crowned with three stigmas. 



Drupe apiculate, about 1 inch long. 



Habitat. — Brazil. 



Illustration. — Plate LXXZVII shows a fine fruiting specimen 

 of the Feathery Coco-nut Palm growing in a garden on Malabar 

 Hill, Bombay. 



Sith-('/enus IV. — BUTIA, Becc. — Arecastrum (partiin) Drude. 



Female flowers ovate ; tips of the sepals cucullate in aestivation 

 (always ?); petals convolute-imbricate at the base, valvate at the apex. 



Fruit trilociilar or by abortion regularly unilocular, ovoid or 

 globose, small ; pericarp fleshy ; endocarp bony ; its pores closed 

 by a superficial, thin, half-woody septum often submedian ;. 

 dissepiments of suppressed cells bony; seed regular; albumen homo- 

 geneous, not hollow ; embryo often not basilar. 



Species about 5. In South America, especially extra-tropical,, 

 except the western region of the Andes. 



COCOS SCHIZOPHYLLA, Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. II, 119, t. 84 et 85, 

 T. f. IV, et vol. Ill, 324 ; H. Wendl. in Kerch. Palm. 241 ; Drude in Mart. FL 

 Bras. Ill, II, 422; Hook, in Ptep. Kew 1882 (1884), 72. Cocos aricui, 

 Prinz V. Neuwied, Reise in Brasilien I, 272. 



Names: Araciiri palm, (English) ; ariri, aricuri, alicuri (Brazil). 



Description. — A low palm, often almost stemless ; cavidex 6 — 8 



feet high, subannulate. Leaves 6-8 feet long ; leaflets not quite 



