THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 521 



Desceiption. — Stem 30-80 feet high, distincth^ aninilate, armed 

 with long black spines, stoloniferotis. Crown thick, graceful. 

 Leaves pinnate, 10-12 feet long, drooping ; petiole roundish, armed, 

 very scnrfy npwards ; leaflets aboiit 2 feet long, conduplicate at the 

 base, acuminate, pendulous, coriaceous, many veined, principal keel 

 above excentric, ferruginous scurfy, underneath bearing scales 

 attached by their middle. 



Spathes boat-shaped, two-keeled, of a stout texture, outer green, 

 covered here and there with whitish-ferruginous scurf, armed on the 

 back especially about the keels ; inner almost unarmed, more scurfy, 

 velvety. Spadices arising from the axils of fallen leaves ; peduncle 

 slightly armed ; branches many, long, undulato-flexuous, lower ones 

 divided, upper simple. A rudimentary bract at the base of the lower 

 one. Flowers crowded, one female between two males, or in pairs, one 

 male and one female, the former more advanced. Male flowers : 

 sepals subeordate, cuspidate, keeled ; petals 3, valvate, coriaceous, 

 suddenly acuminate into subulate bristles, spreading ; stamens 6, 

 filaments short, stout, cohering slightly with the petals, anthers 

 large, sagittate, obtuse ; pistillode rather large, white, of 3 carpels 

 which are distinct nearly from the base. Female flowers with a 

 broad incospicuous bract ; sepals imbricate, suborbicular, concave, 

 fleshy, coriaceous ; petals larger, imbricate ; staminodes 3 or none ; 

 ovary roundish, of the size of a small pea, 1 -celled ; style none, 

 stigmas 3, connivent ; ovule appense pendulous. 



Fruiting spadix : branches 1-2 feet long, pendulous, purplish- 

 sanguineous, with an articulated appearance ; berr}?- spherical, *j^ 

 inch in diameter, surrounded at the base by the perianth, marked 

 towards the apex on one side with an areola, bearing in the centre 

 the remains of the stigmas ; endocarp fibrous, thin ; seed appense just 

 below the areola ; albumen horny, deeply ruminate ; embryo oblong- 

 conical, basilar. 



Habitat. — Singapore ; common, Tanglin, Changi ; Johor ; Malacca; 

 Pringgit and near the town; Cochin China; Borneo. Cultivated 

 in India. 



Uses. — " The wood of the nibong is used for many purposes, in 

 building for flooring, bridges and such like, also for pig spears. 

 Sharpened spears of it are driven into the ground in lalang at such 

 an angle that the point is about the level of the breast of the pig. 

 The spears are pointed towards the garden to be protected from the 

 wild pigs and quite concealed in the gTass ; when the pigs invade the 

 garden the natives startle them by shouts and other noises, the pigs 

 rush out and are impaled on the spears. " (Ridley.) 



Illustration. — Mr. Macmillan has kindly supplied us with 

 the photograph reproduced on Plate LXXI. The left-hand 

 groups consists of 0. fasciculatum and the one to the right of 

 0. filoAuentosum . 

 18 



