THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA A!sD CEYLON. 69 



the axis, imbricated in two rows. Sepals and petals oblong, 

 yellowish-brown ; the sepals rather larger and more angular than 

 the inner. Filaments united at the base into one body ; anthers 

 linear, 2-celled, opening longitudinally, each cell terminating in 

 two globular heads. Female spadix rising from the axils of the 

 leaves, pendent, 2-4 feet long, thick and woolly, tortuose, clothed 

 with large sheathing, red-brown scales, which are singularly 

 fimbriated, or more general^ erose at the margin, and support 

 several, more or less distantly placed, female flowers of different 

 ages, at the same time, and of various sizes. Sepals and petals 

 almost hemispherical and 1 inch thick at the base ; ovary almost 

 concealed by the perianth, broadly ovate, narrow at the base above 

 the insertion of the perianth. 



As we had no opportunity of dissecting the fruit of this palm 

 we borrow the following notes from the interesting paper on the 

 "Germination of the Double Coco-nut" by W. T. Thiselton- 

 Dyer\ 



" It is not a little remarkable," he says, " that our detailed 

 knowledge of the morphology of a plant with so singular a histor}- 

 and such striking characteristics should still be very imperfect. 

 But that this is the case is evident from the description given b}^ 

 Bentham and Hooker in the Genera Plantarum, III, 939. 



As long as the Coco-de-mer was only known from sea-borne 

 specimens it was of course assumed that the Double Coco-nut, as it 

 was called, was the entire fruit. As soon as the palm producing 

 it was discovered, it was at once obvious that this was not the case. 

 The Coco-de-mer is in fact the stone of a gigantic drupe with a 

 fibrous mesocarp. The complete fruit is rarely to be seen in 

 Museums^ ; but Kew possesses one, as well as a plaster model 

 which the late General Gordon had made in the Seychelles and 

 presented to it. The fruit is poorly figured by Sonnerat, but the 

 best representations are in the fine series of pictures (Nos. 474-7 

 and 479) in the North Gallery at Kew, by Miss North who visited 

 the Seychelles in 1883 for the purpose of painting. According to 

 Sir William Hooker, it is ' often a foot and a half in length, 

 weighing twenty or twenty-five pounds.' 



Sonnerat figures the drupe as ellipsoidal. This, if it ever occurs, 

 except in the youngest stage, must be exceptional. The Genera 

 Plantarum, no doubt correctly, describes it as ' oblique obovoideus." 

 Miss North, quoted by Sir Henry Yule (Hobson-Jobson, p. 178) 

 says : ' The outer husk is shaped like a mango.' It is clearly 

 therefore usu.ally unsymmetrical ; one side is somewhat flattened, 

 and the other rounded. This arises from the fact that in the 

 maturing ovarj^ one carpel onl}^ usually develops. 



1 Annals of Botany, Vol. XXIV, No. XCIII, January 1910. 



- There is a good specimen in the Museum of St. Xavier's College, Bombay. 



