696 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCJETY, Vol. XX. 



in Engler's Bot. Jahrb. VI. 469. — P. judae, Christ in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 

 IX. 170.— P. tenuis, Hort.— P. vigieri, Hort, Revenue Hort. 1888, p. 180. 



Description. — Stem solitary, when young covered with the 

 petioles of fallen leaves and then very often forming a bulbiform 

 mass, in old plants cylindric, columnar and stout, reaching a height 

 of 40-50 feet. The crown exceedingly large, hemispheric, dense, 

 consisting of about 200 leaves. Leaves 17-20 feet long, the base 

 of the stalk thick and turgid, more so than in Phoenix dactyli- 

 fera ; the stalk is very short, armed with strong, long spines. On 

 each side of the rhachis there are 150-200 segments, of the same 

 green colour on the upper and lower surface, straight but not 

 rigid, those lowest and next to the spines in fascicles of 2 or 3, 

 above these they are less fascicled, but turned in various directions, 

 those of the upper half of the leaf equidistant, not aggregate and 

 almost opposite to each other. Male panicle on the whole ovate, 

 with strongly angular branches ; the longer branches 1 foot long. 

 Male flowers alternate, often in pairs, ovate-asymmetrical, angular 

 by mutual pressure, 6 lines long ; calyx cup-shaped-obconic, tri- 

 gonous, sharply 3-dentate ; petals densely striate, thinly coriaceous, 

 obtuse or slightly acute. Stamens slightly shorter than the petals ; 

 pistillode very small, papilliform, acute. Female flowers globose- 

 depressed, 2-3 lines in diameter ; calyx cupular, 3-ribbed, very 

 acutely 3-dentate. Corolla by £ longer than the calyx ; staminodes 

 tooth-shaped, very small, perfectly free ; petals twice as broad as 

 long, subreniform, obtusety apiculate in the centre, sometimes the 

 petals are shorter than the sepals. Branches of fruiting spadix 1-2 

 feet long, semiverticillate or spreading, erect patent, stout and 

 rigid. Fruit ovate-elliptic or subglobose-ovate, equally rounded at 

 both extremities, slightly apiculate at the apex, yellow when ripe, 

 smooth, | inch long, 9 lines broad, pericarp thin, crustaceous, 

 fragile. Seed ovate-elliptic or ovate-oblong, rounded at the two 

 extremities, terete, or in a transverse section perfectly round, 

 convex on the ventral side. Dorsal groove quite straight and deep ; 

 process of the raphe, as seen in a median transverse section, very 

 narrow in the beginning, getting broader and deeply lobed at the 

 base ; albumen horny, fragile, very hard ; embryo almost in the 

 middle of the ventral side. 





