PALMAE 125 



what compressed, obovoid, more or less angular, fibrous, 1-seeded carpels. 

 (Prom the Malay name.) 

 A monolypic genus. 



1. N. frutlcans Wurmb. Nipa, Sasa (Tag.). 



Rootstock stout, subterranean, the trunk none. Leaves at the ends of 

 the rootstocks, 5 to 10 m long, the petioles stout; leaflets numerous, rigid, 

 lanceolate, slenderly acuminate, up to 1 m long, 2 to 7 cm wide. Male 

 inflorescence brown, erect up to 1 m in height. Peduncles of the female 

 inflorescence stout, 1 m high or less, the fruit globose, nodding, up to 30 cm 

 in diameter. Carpels numerous, dark-brown, striate, smooth 10 to 14 cm 

 long, compressed, obovate. Seed hard, white. (Fl. Filip. pL S86.) 



Along tidal streams, occasional, but usually immature specimens near 

 Manila; along tidal streams throughout the Philippines. India through 

 Mftlaya to Australia. 



6. COCOS Linnaeus 



Stout, unarmed, monoecious palms. Leaves long, pinnate, the leaflets 

 narrow, acuminate'. Spadix axillary, at first erect, later drooping, panicled, 

 the branches bearing scattered female flowers below and more numerous 

 males above, or often with males intermixed with females. Spathes 2 or 

 more, short, the bracts various. Male flowers unsymmetric, the sepals 

 •small, valvate, the petals oblong, acute. Stamens 6. Female flowers much 

 larger than the males, ovoid, the perianth enlarged in fruit. Sepals 

 imbricate. Petals shorter than the sepals. Ovary 3-celled. Fruit large, 

 ovoid, 1-seeded, the pericarp thick, flbrous, the endocarp very hard, with 

 3 basal scars or pores. (From the Portuguese coco or coquo, "monkey," 

 from fancied resemblance of the 3 scars at the base of the fruit to a mon- 

 key's face.) 



Species about 30 in tropical America, 1 cosmopolitan in the tropics. 



*1. C. NUCiPERA L. Niog (Tag.) ; Coco (Sp.) ; Coconut. 



A tall palm reaching a height of 26 m, the trunk stout, marked with 

 annular scars, base thickened. Leaves 4 to 6.6 m long, crowded at the 

 apex of the trunk, the petiole stout, 1 m or more in length; leaflets' very 

 numerous, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, coriaceous, up to 1 m in length. 

 Inflorescence 1 m long or less. Fruit variable in shape and size, obovoid 

 to subglobose, often obscurely 3-angled, 15 to 26 cm long. AlBuinen lining 

 the bony endocarp. (Fl. Filip. pi. S6i.) 



-Frequently cultivated, fl. all the year; throughout the Philippines in 

 cultivation. Undoubtedly a native of tropical America, but of prehistoric 

 distribution all over the tropics; there' is no evidence of its being an 

 indigenous plantain the Philippines. 



7. ELAEIS Jacquin 



Erect unarmed palms, the trunks solitary. Leaves large, pinnate, the 

 segments narrow, acuminate, the lower ones reduced to, spines. Inflorescence 

 axillary, branched, short, dense, the spadices stout, the peduncles short, 

 subtended by laxly imbricate bracts, the male and female flowers in different 

 inflorescences. Male flowers small, imbricate, in dense cylindric spikes. 

 Sepals oblong or lanceolate, concave, imbricate. Petals oblong. Stamens 

 6, the filaments united into a thick cylindric tube. Female flowers much 

 larger than the males, arranged in congested branched inflorescences, the 



