126 A FLORA OP MANILA 



perianth acrescent. Ovary ovoid, 3- to 1-celled. Fruit ovoid to obovoid, 

 1- to 3-seeded, the pericarp oily, the endocarp hard. (Greek name of the 

 olive.) 



Species 6 or 7 in tropical America and Africa, 1 introduced in the Phil- 

 ippines. 



*1. E. GUINEENSIS Jacq. Oil Palm. 



An erect palm 4 to 10 m high, the leaves numerous, 3 to 4.5 m long, the 

 petioles broad, armed on the sides with spinescent reduced leaves. Leaflets 

 numerous, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, nearly 1 m long, 2 to 4 cm wide. 

 Male inflorescence dense, of numerous, cylindric, 7 to, 12 cm long spikes 

 which are about 1 cm in diameter, their rachises excurrent as a stout awn. 

 Female inflorescence dense, branched, 20 to 30 cm long, the flowers densely 

 disposed, the fruits borne in large dense masses. 



Occasionally cultivated, fl. all the year. A native of tropical Africa, now 

 cultivated in most tropical countries, and in some regions of great economic 

 importance on account of the oil yielded by its seeds. 



8. ARENGA Labillardiere 



Stout palms with very long, erect or ascending, pinnate leaves, the trunk 

 densely clothed with the stout, black, fibrous remains of the sheaths; leaflets 

 very numerous, long, linear, usually more or less irregularly toothed at the 

 apex, sometimes lobed, base often 1- or 2-auricled. Spadices in the leaf- 

 axils, the upper one flowering first, and then the lower ones successively, 

 large, much-branched, long, pendulous. Male and female flowers usually 

 solitary and in separate spadices, sometimes in threes, a female between 

 two males. Male flowers: Sepals orbicular, imbricate. Petals oblong, 

 valvate. Stamens many. Female flowers subglobose, the sepals enlarging, 

 the petals triangular, valvate; staminodes many or none. Fruit subglobose 

 to broadly obovoid, 2- or 8-seeded. (From the Malayan name.) 



Species about 10, tropical. Asia, Malaya, and Australia, about 5 in the 

 Philippines. 



1. A. SACCHARIFERA (Wurmb.) Labill. Caong, Iroc (Tag.) ; Cabo negro 



(Sp.-Fil.) ; Sugar Palm. 



Trunk stout, marked with rather distant annular scars, up to 12 m high. ' 

 Leaves 6 to" 8.5 m long, ascending, the sheathing basal parts with stout, 

 black fibers; leaflets up to 100 or more on each side, linear, 1 to 1.5 m long, 

 the tip lobed and variously toothed, the base 2-auricled, the lower surface 

 white or pale. Inflorescence axillary, the peduncle stout, deeurved, _the 

 pendulous branches very numerous, up to 1.5 m in length. Male flowers in 

 pairs, about 12 mm long. Fruit globose on depressed-globose, about 5 cm 

 in diameter, produced in great abundance. (Fl. Filip. pVil9.) 



Rare in Manila in cultivation,, fl. all the year; throughout the Philippines, 

 but undoubtedly introduced. India to Malaya. 



9. OREODOXA Willdenow 



Large unarmed palms, the trunks solitary, cylindric or thickened in the 

 middle. Leaves terminal, pinnate, the segments narrowly linear-lanceolate, 

 unequally 2-fid at the apex; sheaths elongated, cylindric, imbricate, enclosing 

 the top of the trunk. Inflorescence below the sheaths, the spadix large, the 

 branches elongated, slender, pendulous, the spathes 2, the lower one nearly 

 cylindric, as long as the spadix. Flowers small, monoecious, the lower ones 



