128 A FLORA OF MANILA 



with acute valvate tips. Ovary 1-celled. Fruit ovoid to oblong, red; 

 pericarp fibrous. Seed with ruminate albumen. (From the Malabar 

 name.) 



Species about 35, tropical Asia to Australia, 7 in the Philippines. 



*1. A. CATECHU L. Bunga (Tag.) ; Betel-nut Palm. 



Trunk erect, slender, up to 25 m high, marked with annular scars. 

 Leaves up to 5 m long, the leaflets numerous, 60 to 90 long, the upper ones 

 confluent. Spadix much-branched, the branches filiform above, bearing 

 very numerous, somewhat distichous male powers which are yellow and 

 about 5 mm long. Female flowers at the bases of the branches and in 

 the axils, 1 cm long or more. Fruit ovoid, smooth, red, 4 to 6 cm long, 

 the pericarp somewhat fleshy, the mesocarp fibrous. (Fl. Filip. pi, S50.) 



Commonly cultivated, fl.. all the year; throughout the Philippines in 

 cultivation, certainly of prehistoric introduction. India to Malaya, fre- 

 quently only cultivated; probably a native of India. 



16. ARACEAE (Arum or Gabi Family) 



Perennial plants from rhizomes or fleshy corms, with radical leaves, suf- 

 frutescent or woody vines, or in one genus aquatic and floating. Leaves 

 alternate, various. Flowers 1- or 2-sexual, sessile on a spadix which is 

 more or less enclosed by a green, white, or colored spathe, if 1-sexual the 

 males usually above the females, neuter 'flowers often between them. Per- 

 ianth none, or of 4 to 6 scale-like segments. Anthers 2- to 4-celled. 

 Ovary sessile, 1- to 3-celled; ovules 1 or more. Fruit baccate, 1- to many- 

 seeded. 



Genera 110, species more than 1,000, in all parts of the world, .chiefly 

 tropical, 20 genera and about 65 species in the Philippines. 



1. Coarse climbing vines with large, entire or pinnately lobed leaves. 

 2. Leaves not mottled; ovaries sub-2-celled, many ovuled. 



1. Baphidophora 

 2. Leaves pale-green, mottled with yellowish-green or nearly white spots 



and blotches; ovaries 1-celled, 1-ovuled 2. Scindapsus 



1. Erect plants, never climbing. 

 2. Lettuce-like plants floating on fresh water; leaves and petioles not 



defined 3. Pistia 



2. Terrestrial plants. 



3. Plants from very aro'matic rootstocks, the leaves linear, flat, equi- 



tant .., ,. 4. Acorus 



3. Plants from large globose corms, the flowers appearing before the 

 leaves, the spathes very large; leaves long-petioled, the blade 



deeply 3-parted, spreading 5. Amorphophallus 



3. Leaves and flowers borne at the same time; plants with broad simple 

 leaves. 

 4. Ovaries 2- or 3-celled ; cultivated plants with variegated leaves. 



6. Caladium 

 4. Ovaries 1-celled. 



5. Ovules 1 or 2; anther-cells larger than the connective. 



7. Typhonium 

 5. Ovules few to many. 



6. Ovules few, basal 8. Alocasia 



6. Ovules many, parietal 9. Colocasia 



