THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 917 



Fruit sessile or stalked, terete or obscurely lobed, often flat 

 or intruded at the base and apex, 1 -celled ; stigma basal ; 

 pericarp fibrous, with a shining epidermis ; endocarp Woody, fleshy 

 inside. Seed adnate to the endocarp, erect, ovoid or obovoid, in- 

 truded at the base ; testa very hard, fuscous ; raphe reticulately 

 branched; albumen homogeneous, hollow; embr3^o apical. 



Species at least 40.^ 



Distribution. — All over tropical and subtropical Africa, Arabia, 

 Western India. 



INDIGENOUS SPECIES. 



IIYPH.^NE INDICA, Becc. in Aricoltura Coloniale, II (1908) fasc. 

 III. — Borassus dichotoma, White in Graham Cat. of Plants of Bomb. 

 (1839), 226. Mart. Hist. Nat. Pahn. Ill, 318, n. 179. 



Xames. — Indian Doum Palm ; Oka mundel (in Gujarat). 



Description. — Stem dichotomously branched, similar in gene- 

 ral aspect to that of li. thehaica. Leaves flabellate-multifid, sub- 

 orbicular, measuring 3f feet from the apex of the petiole to the 

 end of the central segments. Central segments rather much 

 smaller and shorter than the intermediate ones, not inserted at 

 the apex of the petiole, but at various heights on the stout 

 rhachis which reaches almost half-way up the limb. Petiole about 

 3^ feet long and about i inch broad at the apex, regularly round- 

 ed on the under side, channelled on the upper side of the lower 

 part and almost flattened near the apex, where it is plano-convex 

 in a transverse section, armed with stout, uncinate, black spines 

 with broad base. Ligule very irregular and asymmetrical, being 

 much more developed on one side of the limb than on the other, 



^ On Hyphasne see : — 



Beccari, 0. Pahnarmn Madagascariensium Synopsis. Engl. Bot. Jahrb. Vol. 



88 (I'.tOfi), Beibl. No. 87, p. l-ll. 

 Beccari, O-Le Palme 'Dum' od Hyphfene e piu specialmente quelle dell 



Africa Italiana. In ' Agricoltura Coloniale,' Anno. II, fasc III. Firenze 



1908, p. 137-183. 

 Carstensen, G. Doiim Palms in India, Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc VI, 271. 

 Dammer. U. Ueber Hyplisne. Engl. Bot. Jahrb., 30 (li>01), 2(i7. 

 Thiselton-Dyer. Flora of Tropical Africa, Vol. VIII. 



