THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 525 



Habitat. — N. Australia: Liverpool Eiver, Queensland, Cape 

 York, Cape Sidmouth. 



Cultivation in Europe. — A stove palm. It grows in a compost of 

 loam and peat, in equal proportions ; a little silver sand ma}- be added. 

 They need plenty of pot room, and a liberal supply of water throughout 

 the summer, both at the roots and overhead. The imported seeds ger- 

 minate quickly in a light sandy soil, if placed on a hotbed, j^oung 

 plants grown from seeds "do well in the drawing room. The first 

 leaves are deeply bifid and show already the prasmorse-dentate tips. 



Illustration. — We have to thank Mr. Phipson for the photograph 

 of Hydriastele Wendlandiana, reproduced on Plate LXXII. The 

 specimen may still be seen in Victoria Gardens, Bomba}-. 



BROPALOSTYLIS, H. Wendl. and Drud in Limijea, XXXIX, 

 180, t. 1, f. 2. 



(Etym. : From "rhopalon", a club, and "st^dos," a pillar; 

 alluding to the club-shaped spadix.) 



Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, III, 172, t. 151, 152 (Areca) et 312 

 Kentia swpidd). — Hook f. PI. Nov. Zel. I, t. 59, 60, (Areca). — 

 Drude Bot. Zeitg., 1877, 637, t. 6, f. 18-21". Bot. Mag., t. 5139, 

 5735 (^reca) .—Benth. and Hook., Gen. PI. Ill, II, 890, 16. 



Unarmed low palms, stem annulate. Leaves terminal, equally 

 pinnatisect; segments numerous, equidistant, narrowly ensiform, 

 acuminate, margins at the base recurved, not thickened ; rhachis on 

 the concave side furfuraceous ; petiole very short ; sheath elongate. 



Spadices short, patent, with a very short and stout peduncle ; 

 branches subflabellate, dense-flowered; spathes 2, complete, oblong,, 

 complanate, the lower one 2-winged ; bracts subulate at the apex ; 

 bracteoles squamiform. Flowers monsecious on the same infrafolia- 

 ceous or iastigiately branched spadix, spirally disposed, ternate with 

 the median one female, or the upper ones solitary and 2-nate male, 

 with bracts and bracteoles. Male flowers asymmetrical, trigonous- 

 compressed. Sepals subulate-lanceolate, scarcely imbricate. Petals 

 obliquely ovate, acuminate, valvate. Stamens 6, filaments subulate 

 filiform, inflexed at the apex ; anthers linear, dorsifixed, versatile. 

 Pistillode columnar. Female flowers smaller than the male, trigo- 

 nous-globose. Sepals rotundate, concave, broadl}^ imbricate. 

 Petals smaller scarcel}^ exserted, cochleate at the base, broadly 

 imbricate, suddenly narrowed into triangular valvate tips. Stami- 

 nodes obsolete. Ovary ovoid, 1-locular; stigma sessile, 3-fid, the 

 trigonous segments erect ; ovule parietal. 



Fruit ellipsoidal, smooth, umbonate by the terminal stigma ; 

 pericarp fibrous ; seed ovoid-oblong or ellipsoidal, erect, free, the 

 broad hilum reaching from the base to the apex ; albumen equable ; 

 embrj^o basilar. 



Species — 2. 



