THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 



695 



branches ; fruiting branches patent or horizontal, or also reflexed. 

 Fruit small, ovate-elliptic, mucronate. Perianth (in fruit) cupular, 

 a little more than 2 lines long and 4 lines broad ; calyx 3-dentate, 

 a little less than half the length of the corolla. Petals not striate 

 externally. Staminodes 6, dentiform, narrow, not united at the 

 base. Seed oblong or subterete-cylindric, equally rounded at the 

 two extremities ; in a median transverse section the process of the 

 raphe is not seen, or is scarcely dilate, obtuse or superficially 

 lobulate ; longitudinal groove of seed pretty long. 



1 2 3 



Fig. 4. 



Male flowers of Phoenix reclinata (5x ). (After Beccari). 



Habitat.— Throughout Tropical Africa from Senegal to Kaffir- 

 land : Sansibar (rare), Pemba, Usambara (on the coast), Uganda. 



Uses. — The split leaf is made into fine mats and caps which 

 take colour easily, and are worked of many patterns. The green 

 bunches of fruit, if immersed for 12 hours in water, suddenly 

 assume a rich scarlet hue, and the astringent pulp becomes sweet. 

 Wine is also obtained from this palm. 



Illustration.— Plate IX. The photograph, supplied by Major 

 Gage, shows a characteristic tuft of specimens of Phoenix reclinata. 

 The leaves which touch the ground belong to younger plants that 

 have been produced by the parent stems. 



PHCENIX CANARIENSIS, Hort. Chabaud, La Provence agricole, 

 No. 19 (Oct. 1882) p. 293, fig. 66-68. Naudin in Revue Horticole 1885, p! 

 541, et 1888, p. 180 ; Illustr. Hort. XXXIII, 8 ; Becc. Males. III. 371.— P. 

 dA-itylifera p.juhce, Webb, et Berth. Hist. Nat. des Canaries, III. 289 ; Christ 



