520 JO URNAL, B 0MB A Y NA TUBAL HIST. SO CIBTY, Vol. XXIII. 



alternate or snbopposite, very narrow, subnlate-acuminate, coriaceous, 

 dark-green, above keeled along the centre, with 2 lateral plaits 

 on either side, spreading or oblique; a few scales attached by the 

 middle extend along the central vein underneath . 



Spathes 2 complete, acutely margined, coriaceous, armed with 

 brown-black spines, outer 1-1-^ feet long, of a greenish colour outside 

 when mature, yellow and polished inside, inner cuspidate. Spadix 

 axillary ; peduncles stout, yellow, flattened at the base, much armed 

 on the spaces between the insertion of the spathes, above these 

 unarmed ; branches 1-2 feet long ; pendulous, flexnous, about equal, 

 2 or 3 times branched or simple. Male flowers : sepals 3, imbricate, 

 carinate, submembranous ; petals 3, valvate, subulate or almost 

 setaceo-acuminate ; stamens 6, sagittate ; pistillode rather large of 

 3, sometimes 2, imperfect carpels. Female flowers : sepals imbricate, 

 roundish-cordate ; corolla conical in the bud ; staminodes 6 ; ovary 

 of 1 large complete carpel and 2 incomplete ones ; no style ; ovule 

 anatropous, parietal. 



Fruiting spadix: branches 2-4 feet long, pendulous, without 

 spathes, each sufiulted by a coriaceous acuminate broad-based bract ; 

 fruit sessile, spherical, |-1 inch in diameter, purplish-black, 

 surrounded at the base by the perionth, oblique, the true apex being 

 indicated by a mammilla on one side near the middle ; epicarp 

 coriaceous ; fibres very few, endocarp membranous, seed round, 

 attached by a broad base, whitish-brown, reticulate with white veins, 

 hilum large ; albumen horny, deeply ruminate. 



Habitat. — Malacca ; common in densely wooded valleys and 

 ravines, at Ohing, and on wooded hills, at Laydang Soobubi, but 

 rare ; in woods at the base of Battoo Bakar ; Borneo (Griffith) ; 

 Sumatra. 



Note — This species is very nearly allied to the species, 0. filamen- 

 tosum, and seems to differ from it only by its larger fruit which 

 reaches up to one inch in diameter. 



0NC08PERMA FILAMENTOSUM, BL, Rumphia, II., 97, t. 82, 103 ; 

 Hook., f. Fl. Brit. Ind., VI, 414. — O. cambodianum, Hance. in Journ. Bot. 

 (1876) 261.— Areca tigillaria, Jack., in Mai. Misc., II, VII, 88 ; Griff., in 

 Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist., V., 463, et in Palms Brit. Ind., 157, t. 233 B.— 

 A. nibunff, Mart., Hist. Nat. Palm, HI, 173, 311, t. 153. — Areca nibung, 

 Griff., ex. H. Wend, 1. in Kerch. Pabn, 231. Keppleria tigillaria, Meissn. 

 Gen. (1842) 355. — Oncos-perma tigillaria, Ridley, Fl. Singapore in Journ. 

 Asiat. Soc, Straits, S. No. 33 (1900) 173. — Areca spinose, Hort. 



Names — English : Nibung Palm. 



German : Nibungpalme. 



Jav. : Erang, Handiwung, LiwiTng, Gendiwung. 



Malay. : Nibong. According to Ridley, the natives of the 

 Malayan Peninsula distingtiish several formes under 

 the names of Lenau, Ibas or Ibu and Nibong Padi. 



