269 



THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON, 

 INDIGENOUS AND INTRODUCED 



BY 



E. Blatter, S.J. 

 Part XI. 

 (With Plates LXIV—LXVIII.) 



(Continued from 'page 682 of Volume XXII.) 



HOWE A, Becc. 



(After Lord Howe's Island; Lord Howe lived from 1725-1799). 



Rowea Becc. Malesia (Howeia) I (1877), 6Q ; Webbia IV 

 (1713), 156.— Benth & Hook. Gen. Plant. Ill, 904>.—GrisehaGhia 

 H. Wendl. & Driide in Linn^a, XXXIX (1875), 88,200, t. IV, 

 f. 1-2.— Kentia Benth. Fl. Austral. VII, 137. 



Stem arborescent, erect, annulate. Leaves terminal, regularlj^ 

 pinnate, slender-petioled, bright green, with a sheath completely 

 embracing the stem in their lowest part. Seginents numerous, 

 straight, not sigmoidal, 3-sub-5-costulate, acuminate, the upper ones 

 gradually decrescent, the terminal ones free to the base. 



Spadix much elongate, inserted at the nodes of fallen leaves, 

 rising solitary or 3-6 from one and the same basilar spathe, com- 

 pressed, marcescent. Floriferous part strongly alveolate or scrobi- 

 culate, first completely enclosed in its proper spathe which opens 

 longitudinally. Flowers ternate in the scrobiculi up to the end of 

 the spadix; the two lateral flowers are male and one of them 

 provided with a special bract ; the female flowers develop long- 

 after the male flowers have fallen. Male flowers : regular ; sepals 

 coriaceous, acutely carinate on the back ; petals coriaceous ; stamens 

 numerous (30-100); anthers linear, basifixed; pistillode or 

 inconspicuous. Female flowers : sepals rotundate, cucullate, cori- 

 aceous ; corolla slightly longer than the calyx ; petals broadly 

 imbricate- below, ending in a stoiit point ; staminodes 6, small, 

 dentiform ; ovary with one small cell, placed in the lowest part, ovate- 

 elongate, terminated by 3 trigonous, stout, connivent stigmas ; ovule 

 anatropous, erect from the base of the cell. 



Fruit symmetrical, mucronate-umbonate at the apex ; epicarp 

 smooth ; mesocarp with few fibres ; endocarp very thinly woody, 

 forming a fragile shell to the seed. Seed erect from the base of the 

 cavity of the endocai-p, ovoid, marked on both sides by 5-6 ramifi- 

 cations of the raphe ; hilum small, basilar ; albumen homogeneous, 

 horny ; embrj^'o basilar. 



