348 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



Hook. Gen. PL III, II., 921, 80.— Trim. Journ. of Bot. 1885, XXIII, 

 No. 273, p. 266. 



Tall trees or low shrubs, the entire stem or the upper portion 

 only closely covered by the more or less rhomboid bases of the 

 petioles ; stems occasionally branched. The first leaf of the seed- 

 ling, and sometimes the first leaf of root-suckers is lanceolate, 

 entire. Leaves pinnate ; leaflets entire, linear, folded longitudi- 

 nally and attached obliquely with their folded base to the common 

 woody petiole, the lowest pinnae usually transformed into spines ; 

 no midrib, but a slender nerve on either side of the fold ; nerves 

 longitudinal, parallel, stout and slender, the slender nerves often 

 obscure ; transverse veinlets present, but usually only visible under 

 the microscope in thin sections, cut parallel with the surface of 

 the leaf. In the majority of species the leaflets in the lower 

 portion of the petiole stand in fascicles of 4 or 6, 2 or 3 on each 

 side of the petiole, while the upper leaflets are usually alternate or 

 opposite ; common petiole semiterete or flat, often widening at the 

 base into a sheath, which frequently expands into a mass of tough, 

 reticulate fibres. Flowers dioecious, small, yellowish, coriaceous, 

 sessile on the bends of long, glabrous, undulating spikelets, 

 usually supported by 1 or 2 minute, subulate, or triangular bracts, 

 the female flowers often approximate in pairs. The spikelets are 

 inserted in horizontal or oblique lines on both sides of a flat, 

 woody peduncle. Male flowers : Sepals 3, connate in a cupular 

 3-toothed calyx. Petals 3, obliquely ovate, valvate. Stamens 6 ; 

 filaments short, subulate ; anthers erect, dorsifixed ; pistillode minute 

 or absent. Female flowers - : Sepals 3, connate in a globose, accre- 

 scent calyx. Petals 3, rounded, imbricate, staminodes 6, free or 

 connate in a 6-toothed cup. Carpels 3, free ; ovules erect ; 

 stigmas sessile, hooked. Peduncle often lengthening after flower- 

 ing. Fruit a single, oblong, 1 -seeded berry, with a terminal stigma, 

 a fleshy pericarp, and a membranous endocarp ; seed oblong, ventral- 

 ly grooved ; albumen uniform or subruminate ; embryo small. 



Species about 12. — Africa, Asia. 

 273.— Griff. Palms Brit. Ind. 136 t. 128A, 129A, B.— Jacq. Fragm. t. 24.— 

 KunthEnum. PL III. 254.— Miq. FL Ind. Bat. III. 62.— T. Anders. Journ. 

 Lin. Soo. XI. 13.— Drude Bot. Zeitg. 1877, 638, t. vi. fig. 27-33.— Benth. & 



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