194 GIBBS. 



THE SUGAR PALM. 

 Arenga saccharifera Labill. 



contents. 



Malayan Names. 



Description. 



Distribution. 



Uses. 



The Sap. 



Uses. 



Tapping the palm. 



Sap flow. 



Composition of the sap. Table XXIX. 

 Starch of the Sugar Palm. 



MALAYAN NAMES. 



The name arenga is of Javanese origin, the palm being l5:nown in that 

 island as aren or areng. In some parts of the Dutch East Indies it is 

 called alel, lirang and cawung and, on the Malay Peninsula, Tcahung. 

 The Dyak name is tali idgioTc and the term often employed by the Malays 

 and Indians is gumuti. In the Philippines, the most common names are 

 kaong (Tagalog), MbioJc (Visayan), idioh (Bikol), and iroh (on the 

 Island of Mindoro). 



Watt ^* states that this is the sago palm of Malacca and the Malaya, 

 but not the true sago palm. It produces much starch, forming an im- 

 portant article of food among certain tribes of the natives, but this 

 starch is generally inferior to that of the true sago palm, Metroxylon 

 rumphii Mart, and other species, found in the Philippines and other 

 parts of Malaya. The starch is spoken of as Java sago. 



DESCRIPTION. 



The botanical description of the palm is as follows : Clothed above with 

 the fibrous remains of the leaf sheaths. Trunk erect, rather stout, 2 to 

 12 meters high. Leaves numerous, pinnate, ascending, up to 8 meters 

 in length, the leaflets 100 or more on each side, elongated, 1 to 1.5 meter 

 long, lobed and variously toothed near the apex, the lower surface white. 

 Inflorescence first from an upper leaf axil, and successively from lower 

 ones, the spathes many, clothing the peduncle of the spadix, the 



^'' A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Calcutta (1885), 1, 302. 



