THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 27.-, 



pinnatisect, segments numerous, lanceolate, attenuate towards 

 base and apex, acuminate, 1-nerved, the margins thickened and 

 recurved at the base, sheath short, fibrous, swollen at the 

 base. 



Spadix decompound, branches stout, branchlets divaricate. Spathes 

 2, the lower one 2-cristate, the upper one much longer. Flowers 

 monoecious on the same spadix, spirally arranged, either ternate 

 and then the central one is female, or binate in the upper part, both 

 being male, obsciu-ely bracteate and bracteolate. Male flowers 

 asymmetrical, compressed. Sepals small, subrotund, gibbous at 

 the base, imbricate. Petals ovate, subacute, valvate. Stamens 6 • 

 filaments filiform, connate at the base, with the apices inflexed ; 

 anthers linear, dorsifixed, bifid at both ends, versatile. Eudimen- 

 tary ovary columnar, 3-gonous. — Female flowers subequal to the 

 male ones, ovoid. Sepals reniform, broadly imbricate. Petals slightly 

 longer, orbicular, convolute-imbricate. Staminodes 6, setiform. 

 Ovary oblong, 1- locular ; stigmas small, recurved; ovule parietal 

 pendulous. 



Fruit pisiform ; stigmas excentric ; pericarp grumose, not fibrous, 

 smooth on the inner side. Seed globular, erect, free ; hilum basilar ; 

 raphe elongate, branches descending from the chalaza, reticulate ; 

 albumen slightly ruminate; embryo-basilar. 



Species : 2. 



Distribution. — Philippines, Solomon Islands? Amboina. 



RETEROSPATHA ELATA, Scheff. Ann. Jart. Buitenz. I, 162. 



Metroxylon elaturn, Cat. Hort. Buitenz. ex Scheffer, 1. c. 

 ? Areca elata, Hort. . . . ^ 



? Dypsis elata, Hort. ... )>-ex Salomon, Palmen (1887) p. 82. 

 ? Hyoijhorhe elata, Hort.j 



Name. — Kalapa outan (Amboina) ; Sagiusi (Visayan language); 

 Erhabene Wechselscheide (German). 



Description. — Leaves 13 feet long: sheath broad at the base, but 

 short and fibrous ; potiole 5 feet long ; segments about 70 on each 

 side, the longest reaching 3 feet. 



Lower spathe three times shorter than the upper one, which 

 measures 4 feet. Spadix longer than the spathes. 



Fruits globular, about 3 lines in diameter. 



Habitat.— Masbate Island (Philipines) at Mabo, Marintor River 

 (Beccari); Amboina (Scheffer).* 



''Sclieffer says that the plant which he described in the " Ann. Jard. Buitenz." 

 is growing- in the Botanic Garden of Buitenzorg and is said to have come from 

 -A mboina. Beccari has seen only one specimen cultivated in the Botanic Garden 

 of Siug-apore, but has never met this palm in its wild State. Cf. Webbia I (1905), 

 p. 328. 



2. A second species, HeterospatJia — salomonensis, Becc. Webbia III (1910), p. I53- 

 ] 5i), is indigenous in St. George Island (Solomon Islands). 



