740 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIU^ 



Brit. Ind.). Spatlies sword-shaped, apex rounded, convex outside,, 

 broadly channelled inside, winged, inner spathe shorter, narrower,, 

 not winged, woolly. Flowers in pairs numerous and close, a male 

 and a female together, or females only at base, males at tip. Male 

 flowers : sepals ovate orbicular, petals larger, ovate, acute, ^ inch long, 

 Avhite or yellow. Stamens 6, filiform, white ; anthers small, oblong, 

 dorsifixed. Pistillode large, conie. Female flowers with a transversely 

 oblong bract. Sepals ovate, truncate, gibbous, green, petals shorter, 

 ovate, acute, green. Pistil obovoid. Stigmas minute, triangular. 



Drupe nearly f inch long by J inch in diameter, ovoid or 

 elliptic-ovoid, red, pulpy, tip conical, slightly excentric. Seed free, 

 elliptic-ovoid, romided at both ends, f inch long, grooved on one 

 face, branches or raphe descending to the base ; albumen ruminate. 



Habitat. — Singapore : San.^'iin, Sungei Buluh, Chan Chu Kang, 

 Toas, Kranji ; Johor : Gunoug Pulai ; Bindings : Sumut (ex Ridley) 

 cultivated in India. 



Uses. — The stems which are quite black make beautiful walking* 

 sticks (Ridley). 



DICTYOSPUBMA, Wendl. & Drude Linn., 39, 181. 



(From the Greek "dictyon," a net, and "sperma," seed; in 

 allusion to the raphe of the seed forming a loose network). 



Mart., Hist. Nat. Palm, III, 175, t. 154, fig. 2, 3 (Areca)— Baker, 

 Fl. Maurit., 383.— Schefl"., Natuurk. Tijdsch. Ned. Ind., 32, 183 

 (Ptyclio sperma album') — Benth. & Hook, Gen. PI. Ill, II, 890, 1. 



Unarmed, of moderate height ; leaves equally pinnate ; petiole with 

 a complete basal sheath; pinnae strongly reduplicate at the base, 

 1 -nerved; with a few scales beneath; the terminal pinnae confluent. 



Monoecious. Flowers in spirally disposed 3-flowered clusters on 

 the branches of a simply subfastigiately branched spadix, the female 

 flower between and below two males. Male flowers: inner seg- 

 ments of peiianth valvate, thickened, ovate-oblong, acute ; stamens 

 6, included ; pistillode a terete column, shorter than the stamens. 

 Female flowers : segments of perianth imbricate ; staminodes form- 

 ing a ring with 6 linear teeth. 



Fruit olive-like, persistent ; scar of the stigma exactly apical ; 

 mesocarp fibrous ; endocarp slender, ci'ustaceous. Seed attached 

 to the endocarp on one side throughout its whole length; raphe 

 forming a loose network ; albumen ruminate ; embryo subbasilar. 



Species. — 3. 



Distribution. — Mascarine Islands. 



Cultivation in Europe. — Stove palms. A compost of loam,, 

 peat, and leaf soil, in equal parts, with a liberal addition of sand 



