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



are shortly bifid or bidentate with the teeth obtuse and divaricate ; 

 lateral segments gradually becoming more narrow and shorter. 



Male spadices very similar to those of T. excelsa as regards size, 

 ramification and shape of the spathes, but the branchlets are less 

 densely covered with flowers. Flowers giomerulate, 2-4 together 

 with minute j^ellow fleshy bracts at the base, in the well developed 

 bud obscurely trigonous-globose, £ inch long; calyx very small, 

 sepals suborbicular, veiy obtuse and rounded at the apex ; petals 

 broadly ovate, concave, obtuse, twice as long as the calyx ; 

 stamens 6, equal uniseriate ; filaments cylindrical — lesiniform, at 

 least j longer than the petals ; anthers ovate-oblong, versatile ; 

 carpels 3, narrowly conical, slightly incurved and divergent, glab- 

 rous, half as long as the petals, with an ovule apparently well 

 developed. Female spadix and flowers not yet described. Fruit 

 similar to that of T. excelsa, but more distinctly reniform and 

 somewhat broader. (After Beccari.) 



Habitat. — Up to now this palm has been found in the West- 

 ern Himalaya only. It grows on Mount Takil in Kumaon at a 

 height of 6,600 — 8,000 feet, where it is annually covered with 

 snow. According to Gamble it prefers the cool narrow valleys 

 to the north-west. Duthie found hundreds of them at a height 

 of 8,000 feet in the moist forests of Quercus dilatata. 



Cultivation in Europe. — Beccari is probably the first to in- 

 troduce this palm in Europe. He obtained some plants from 

 seeds in the year 1887. All the young plants showed a marked 

 tendency towards unilateral development, as if they wanted to creep 

 on the ground. In the course of time the stem grew upwards 

 and became quite straight, but the lower part alwaj^s remained 

 much thicker than the upper portion. After the appearance of 

 the stem this palm seems to grow quicker than T. excelsa. The 

 trees are kept in the open in the vicinity of Florence and they 

 did not suffer even during the severest of winters. Only once in 

 an exceptionally cold winter the ice spoilt a few leaves. The 

 heat seems to be more harmful to them than the cold. In 1904 

 some leaves were so to say burnt b}^ the July sun and, perhaps, 

 also in consequence of the exceedingly dry air. 



