314 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



ous in every part, with the peduncular part included in the 

 respective spathe : flower-bearing branchlets alternate-distichou.s. 

 Lower branches much larg-er than the upper ones, sometimes twice 

 branched, bearing 10-12 and more flower-bearing branchlets. 

 Flowering branchlets filiform, each arising from the axil of a thin, 

 membranous, narrowly lanceolate-acuminate bract. Flowers in 

 small glomevules, usually 2-4 together, alternate-spirallj^ arranged, 

 ■each with a minute liracteole. Calyx shortly tubular, J^ inch in 

 diameter, slightly longer than broad, obsoletely trigonous ; segments 

 acute. Corolla tubular for more than the lower half, divided into 

 -J broad deltoid teeth, 4-sulcate on the inner side. Stamens with 

 their filaments imited with the corolla-tul)e and forming a fleshy 

 ring (at the mouth of the tube) which is provided with (3 small 

 iinear teeth; anthers dorsifixed, erect, small, shortly ovate, rotun- 

 ■date at both extremities ; pollen exceedingly small, globose. 

 Carpels forming a turbinate bod}', flesh}^ below, cartilaginous in 

 the upper part, suddenly contracted into the style ; stigma 

 small, very shortly 3-lobed. 



Fruit ovoid, sometimes globose-ovoid ; mesocarp very small, with 

 a few anastomosing-reticulate fibres ; endocarp thinly parchment- 

 like-woody, fragile. Seed free in the endocarp, |-i inches long, 

 2? ~25 inch broad, rotundate at both extremities ; hilum at the 

 base of one side ; raphe occupying one side of the seed with 7-8 

 ramifications ; albumen distinctly ruminate ; embryo conical, 

 basilar, slighth' eccentrical. 



Habitat. — Brazil (Bahia, I'ernambuco, Piauhy). Sometimes 

 grown in Indian Gardens. 



Uses. — The berries, though bitter, are, either raw or boiled, 

 ■eaten by the Indians ; also the spadix is edible. 



The leaves serve for a variety of purposes, such as thatch, 

 pack-saddles, hats, etc., and in time of scarcity the young leaves 

 .are chopped up and given as fodder to horses and cattle. 



The well-known vegetable wax is produced b}' the leaves of this 

 ])alm. The young leaves, after they have been detached from the 

 tree, are shaken, when each leaf yields about 50 grains of a whitish 

 scaly powder, which is melted in pots over a fire ; the wax then 

 ^.•ollects at the surface of the Avater. The Brazilians use the wax 



