THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 921 



Female spadix like the male ; bracteoles densely imbricate, 

 with a transverse line of tomentum half-way up the back. 

 Flowers very shortly pedicellate, calyx-lobes orbicular-ovate, light 

 green. Petals smaller than the sepals, orbicnlar-ovate, concave. 

 Staminodes 6. Ovary globose or 3-lobed ; stigmas sessile or 

 nearly so. 



Fruit more or less obliquely ovoid or oblong, irregular, usually a 

 little more constricted in the upper part than in the middle and 

 lower part, always much longer than broad, 24-31 inches long and 

 2i-2i- inches broad, more or less obtusely triangular in transverse 

 j<ection, with the abortive carpels often much developed ; surface 

 i-ather irregular and itsually very distinctly punctate-impressed. 

 Sarcocarp rather strongly impregnated with sugar ; wall of endocarp 

 j\-|- inch thick on one side, on the other (which corresponds to an 

 obtuse longitudinal keel), \-^ inch, not thicker below than on the 

 ^ides and not incurved at the apex of the seed ; fulcrum of seed much 

 depressed and little developed. Seed more or less ovate-conical 

 iind flattened at the base, alwaj^s much attenuate above and, 

 therefore, more or less pyriform, almost circular in transverse 

 section, If-lf inches long, Ix2~l8 inches broad. 



The fruit varies a good deal by being more or less attenuate 

 iibove. A longitudinal section of the fruit of H. thebaica and 

 ]{. indica is given on page 930 of Vol. XVIII of this journal 

 illustrating a short note on ' The Indian Doum ' by I. H. Burkill. 



Habitat. — Along the valley of the Nile in Middle and Upper 

 Egypt ; Shaikh Othman near Aden. 



History of the Doum Palm. — Eighteen centuries already before 

 ■Christ we find the Doum Palm in the middle course of the Nile. 

 Anna, an officer of Thutmes I. (18th dynasty), superintendent of 

 the granaries of Anion and director of the royal works, enumerates 

 with great complacency on the inscription of his tomb^ the trees 



^ Brugsch. H. Recueil de monuments eg-yptieus. Leipzig-, 1 S(i2 ; part I, p. -48, 

 pi. XXXVI. 

 Moldenke, C E. Ueber die in alta g-yptischen Texten erwahnten Baume nnd 



deren Verwerthiing-. Leipzig. 188C>. p. 18. 

 Boussac, H. Le tombeau d'Anna (Mem. de la mission archied, au Caire, 1896, 

 t. xviii. fasc. 1, pi. s. n.). 

 26 



