.018 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIU. 



raphe with 3-5 brandies which ascend from the hiltim and theu 

 spread over the surface ; albumen homogeneous ; embryo erect, 

 basilar. 



Habitat. — Se3rchelles. 



Gardening. — Accmtho])ha"nix noUlis is an elegant spiny palm 

 with pinnated leaves and linear pointed leaflets, which are grace- 

 fully drooping at the point. There is an illustration of this palm 

 inGard. Ohron., 1870, p. 561. The palm had first been called 

 Deckenia by Wendland in honour of Baron von der Decken, the 

 African explorer. It should not be confounded with Decker'ia, a 

 synonjan of the American genus Iriartea, 



Illustrations.— We reproduce on plate LXIX a groiip of Ver- 

 schafeltia S'plendida, Wendl., growing in the Botanic Gardens of 

 Singapore. Mrs. Burkill was kind enough to take the photographs. 

 The description of this species appeared in our last issue. 



Plate LXX shows a fine specimen of Acanthoj^Juenix nohUis, 

 Benth. and Hook., photographed in a jungle of the Seychelles 

 Islands. 



ONCOSFF.RMA, Bl. in Rumph., t. 82, 103. 



(Etym. : From the Greek " oncos," a tumour,' and " sperma," 

 seed, alluding to the shape of the seed.) 



Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. Ill, 112, t. 150, 153, f. 4, 6 {Areca 

 horrida). Meissn. Gen. PI. 355, Comm. 266 (/vej^jjZer/a).— Griffith 

 l^alms Brit. Ind. 157, t. 233 B. C. {Areca, sect, Mtojolus).— 

 Scheff. Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenz., I, 139, 159, t. 29, f. 3 et t. 30.— 

 Benth. and Hook., Gen. PI. Ill, II, 895, 28.— Linnsea 39, 180.— 

 Hook., PI. Brit. Ind., VI, 4U. 



^ Trunk tall, prickly, stoloniferous. Leaves terminal, equally 

 pinnatisect, segments equidistant or sub-fasciculate, ensiform, acumi- 

 nate, entire at the apex ; rhachis furfuraceous ; sheath elongate. 



Spadix short-pedunculate, simply or twice branched, unarmed or 

 aculeate ; spathes 2, complete, as long as the spadices, caducous, 

 ensiform, coriaceous, unarmed, or aculeate, the inner one bicristate. 

 Flowers sessile, spirally crowded on the branches, the upper solitary, 

 male, the lower ternate, a female between two males. Male flowers 

 asymmetrical, trigonous compressed. Sepals small triangular- 

 rotundate, acute, imbricate at tho base. Petals obliquely ovate, 

 acute or acuminate, valyate. Stamens 6-12 ; filaments short, straight 

 or incurved at the apex ; anthers linear, erect. Pistillode collumnar, 

 split at the apex. Female flowers much smaller than the male, 

 obliquely globose. Sepals unequal, rotcmdate, gibbous at the base, 

 broadly imbricate. Petals slightly longer, orbicular, convolute- 

 imbricate. Staminodes minute, 6. Ovary broadly and obliquely 

 ovoid, 1 or o-locular, stigmas minute ; ovule parietal, pendulous. 



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