THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 86 



stamens many, 17 according to Brandis, filaments very short, 

 united at the base ; anthers linear, adnate, generally slightly 

 mucronate ; pollen ovate-lanceolate, 1-or 3-plicate. Female flowers 

 at the time of expansion of the males, minute, rudimentary, not 

 developed until after the males of the same spadix have fallen ofi, 

 smaller than the males, not always solitary, but sometimes 2 or 3 

 together, or solitarj^ with a scar of one male only ; sepals rounded, 

 with a brown intramarginal line, and ciliate edges ; petals 3, twice 

 as long as the sepals, valvate, coriaceous, brown ; staminodes 3, 

 j^ellowish, tips glandular; ovary roundish ovate, with 3 obtuse 

 angles. 



Fruit \ inch in diameter, red\ surrounded at the base by the 

 perianth, depressed, rather round ; epicarp brittle, sub-fibrous. 

 Seed globose ; albumen horny, ruminate ; embryo dorsal. 



Habitat. — Burma ; from Arakan southwards ; Martaban ; Malay 

 Peninsula ; Penang ; Andaman Islands ; Malay Archipelago. — 

 (De Kerchove de Denterghem" sa3^s, that the original home of 

 Caryota sobolifera, Wall. (=^C'. mitis, Lour.) is Tibet and the 

 Malacca Peninsula. Has this palm ever been observed in Tibet ? ) 



Illustration : Plate XL VII. — The photograph, supplied by 

 Major Gage, shows a clump of Caryota Tnitis, Lour., growing in the 

 Botanic Garden of Calcutta. If not disturbed by the gardener's 

 knife, this palm will always form a thick compact tuft. 



* INTRODUCED SPECIES. 



CARYOTA RUMPHIANA, Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. Ill (1850) 195 ; 

 Blume Rumphia, II, 140 ; Miq. Fl. Incl. Bat. Ill, 40 ; Becc. Malesia I, 70 ; 

 Koorders Exkursionsfl. Java (1911) I, 237. — Caryota onaxima, Blume in 

 Mart. 1. c. (1850) 195; Miq. 1. c. 39. — Caryota furfuracea ^ caudata Bl. 

 Rumphia II, 136, tab. 163, C; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. Ill, Z'd.— Caryota N6, 

 Becc. in Nuovo Giornale Bot. Ital. Ill, 12. — Caryota Alberti, F. v. Muell. 

 in Wendl. et Drude, Palm. Austr. in Linnsea (1875), 219. 



Names. — Eumph's Caryota, Albert Palm (English). 



Suwangkung, Suwangkung gede, (Sunda Isl.), after Koorders. 



Description.- -A fine tree, growing more than 60 feet high. 

 Stem columnar, up to 1^ feet in diameter, unarmed, not soboli- 

 ferous. Crown of leaves broad. Leaves doubly pinnate, 13-20 

 feet long ; leaflets ver}^ oblique, half fan-shaped, much plicate, up 

 to 1^ feet long, only 2-3 inches broad at the base, thick-leathery 

 rigid, irregularly and obtuselj^ toothed, the lower margin sometimes 

 produced into a long obtuse point, sometimies shorter than the 

 next fold. 



Spikes often above 2 feet long. Male flowers about 5 lines or 

 rather more. Stamens above 30. 



^ Hooker describes the fruit as bluish black, Griffith as greenish red or red. Mr. 

 BurkUl informs me that a specimen in his garden bears red fruits. 



'^ Les Palmiers. Paris, 1878, p. 329. 



