266 DESCRIPTION OF MALAYAN PLANTS. 
already quoted. It belongs to the same 
natural family with Dipterocarpus, Sho- 
rea, &c. 
SAGUS LJEVIS. 
Hexanpria MoNoGYNIA. 
Frondibus inermibus pinnatis, spadicibus 
alterne ramosis, floribus singule squamæ 
binis, hermaphroditis, fructibus subglo- 
is. 
Sagus levis, No. 4. Rumph. Amb. I. 
Rambiya, Malay. 
This valuable Tree rises to the height 
of about twenty feet, and is generally sur- 
rounded by numerous smaller and younger 
plants which spring up around it after the 
manner of the Plantain (Musa sapientum). 
The stem, which is about as thick as that 
of the Cocoa-nut tree, is annulated by the 
vestiges of the fallen leaves, and the upper 
part is commonly invested with their with- 
ered sheaths. The leaves resemble those 
of the Cocoa, but grow more erect, and 
are much more persistent, so that the fo- 
liage has not the same tufted appearance, 
but has more of the graceful ascending 
curve of that of the Saguerus Rumphii : 
they are pinnate, unarmed; the leaflets 
linear, acute, carinate, and smooth. The 
tree is from fifteen to twenty years in com- 
ing to maturity, the fructification then ap- 
pears, and it soon after decays and dies. 
The inflorescence is terminal ; several spa- 
dices rise from the summit of the stem, 
inveloped in sheaths at their joints, and 
* alternately branched. It isonthese branches 
that the flowers and fruit are produced, 
and they are generally from five to eight 
inches in length. They are of a brown 
colour, and closely imbricated with broad 
scariose scales, within which is a quantity 
of dense ferruginous wool, in which the 
minute flowers are imbedded and com- 
pletely concealed. Each scale su 
two flowers, which are hermaphrodite, and 
been eut, and left standing in that state, will produce 
Camphor in seven or eight years after, which is dis- 
tinguished by the name of Oogar, but is inferior in 
scarcely larger than a grain of t 
The Perianth is six-leaved, of which three 
are interior, the leaflets nearly equal. Sta- 
mina six; filaments very short; anthers 
oblong, two-celled. Ovaria three, con- 
nected together in the middle, each mono- 
orous. Style none. Stigma small. Fruit 
single, yg : I 
at the summit, but with a short, acute, mu- 
cro or point in the centre; it is covered 
with scales which are imbricated from the 
top to the bottom, and are shining, of a 
greenish straw-colour, of a rhomboidal 
shape, and with a longitudinal furrow down 
their middle. 
is of a spongy consistence, and the fruit 
contains a single seed, of rather an irregu- 
lar shape, and having the umbilicus situated 
laterally a little above the base of the fruit. 
very slow, and is said, according to the best 
information I can obtain, to occupy about 
three years from the first appearing of the 
spadices to the final ripening of the fruit. 
During the period of inflorescence, the 
branches of the spadix are brown, and ap- 
parently quite bare. Afterwards a number 
f 
they at length acquire the size of a small 
apple. 
each branch. 
In habit and character this tree recedes 
considerably from the true Palme. Its 
propagation by radical shoots, exactly in 
the same manner as the common cultivated 
Plantain, is peculiar, and is not observ 
in the true Palms. The terminal inflores- 
cence and death of the tree after fructifi- 
cation, is another peculiarity. It is allied 
to Calamus by its retroversely imbricated 
frui 
t. 
This species of Sago is abundant im 
many parts of Sumatra and at Malacca, and 
is employed in the preparation of Sago for 
food. Considerable quantities are made at 
the Poggy Islands lying off the west coast 
of Sumatra, where it in fact forms the pri" | 
Below the scales, the rind 
e progress of the fruit to maturity is 
But few fruit come to maturity on 
