THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 4^7 



petals 3, coriaceous, valvate, with almost introilexed points, 

 furrowed inside from the pressure of the stamens. Stamens about 

 14, inserted on a small prominent torus, rather shorter than the 

 petals ; filaments very short ; anthers linear, erect ; no pistillode. 

 Female flowers white, crowded, calyx tripartite nearly to the base ; 

 segments rounded, coriaceous, greenish, spreading. Corolla of 3 

 broad, ovate, coriaceous petals ; no staminodes. Ooary trigonous, 

 2-celled, of a thick coriaceous substance ; no style ; stigma conical ; 

 ovules solitary, erect, basilar. 



Fruit white, oblong, ^ inch long, base surrounded by the perianth, 

 one-seeded, 2-celled, one cell being almost obliterated. Seed erect, 

 oblong, plano-convex ; albumen solid, radiating from a central line ; 

 embryo dorsal. 



Habitat. ^ — Assam and the Khasia Hills, ascending to 4,000 feet. 



Flowers. ^ — In Jnly and August. 



DIDYMOSPERMA GRACILIS, Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. 420 ; Bran- 

 dis, Ind. Trees 655. 



Description. — Stem very slender, 2 feet high, about as thick as a 

 duck's cjuill, leafy upwards. Leaves 8-18 inches long ; petiole and 

 rhachis very slender ; leaflets 6-8, 1-3^ inches long and broad, white 

 beneath ; lateral leaflets broadly cuneate below the middle, above it 

 triangular or 3-lobed or truncate and acutely toothed. 



Spadix slender, erect, 3-branched. Fruiting spadix 8 inches 

 long, sheathed below the middle with narrow long terete glabrous 

 striate spathes, lateral branches 3 inches, terminal 4 inches long. 



Fruit elongate, f by ^ inch in diameter, ovoid, obtuse, base 

 rounded. Seed elliptic-oblong, | inch long, concave-convex, 

 equally narrowed at both obtuse ends ; raphe very ob,scure ; albumen 

 equable. 



Habitat.— Assam, Daphla Hills. 



This palm was discovered b}^ Booth, Nuttall's Collector in 

 Assam. 



WALLIGHIA, Roxb. Corom. PI. Ill, t. 295. 



(After Nathanael Wallich, Superintendent of the Bot. Gardens, 

 Calcutta, 1786—1854). 



Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, iii, 189. (excl. sp. 3), 315, t. 36 

 (ffarma)— Kunth. Enum. PI. Ill, 193, (ffarma).— Griff". Palms 

 Brit. Ind. 174, 175, 237, A. B. C— Kurz For. Fl. II, 521 

 (excl. sp. 3). — T. Anders. Journ. Linn. Soc. XL — Bot. Mag. t. 

 4584.— Benth. & Hook. Gen. PI. Ill, II, 916, 70.— Hook. Fl. 

 Brit. Ind. VI, 418. 



Stemless or caulescent, rarely simple-stemmed, often soboliferous 

 palms. Leaves pinnatisect ; leaflets linear or oblong, irregularly 

 toothed, base cuneate, unicostate, nerves flabellate. 



