552 LXXVII. PALM^. [Wallkhia. 



nulate, covered all over with a thin coating of a whitish substance, which is 

 scraped oflf, mixed with tallow, and made info candles. It consists of vegetable 

 wax, and a crystalline resin called Oeroxylin. 



Another wax-yielding Palm, attaining 200 ft., is described by Karsten (Flora; 

 ColumbisB, i. t. 1), as KlopstocMa cerifera, from the mountains in the vicinity' 

 of Caracas in Venezuela, at an elevation of 5000 ft. Vegetable wax is also ob- 

 tained and used to make candles from the young leaves of Gopernicia cerifera, 

 the Gamaba wax-Palm of Brazil, which are coated with it. This Palm has 

 fan-shaped leaves, and belongs to the tribe of Gorypkinece. 



4 PHCEBTIX, Linn. 



Low shrubs or tall trees, the upper part of the stem closely covered by 

 the bases of the petioles, the lower part rough with their soars, rarely an-^ 

 nulate. Leaves pinnate, pinnae entire, linear, rigid, folded longitudinally s 

 and attached obliquely with their folded base to the lateraUy-oompressed/ 

 petiole, the lowest pinnae often transformed into spines. Petiole semi- 

 terete below the leaves, base a reticulate fibrous amplexicaul sheath.' 

 Flowers dioicous ; a rigid, often woody axillary compressed peduncle, 

 bearing near its upper end numerous long slender but rigid spikes, which 

 are interrupted in the female, compact in the male inflorescence ; pedun- 

 cle enclosed in bud in a single tMckly-coriaceous keeled sheath. Calyx 

 cup-shaped, 3-toothed ; petals 3, oblong and valvate in the male, ovate 

 or rounded and imbricate in the female flowers. Male flowers : Stamens 

 commonly 6, rarely 3 or 9, surroundiag a rudimentary ovary. Pemale 

 flowers : Carpels 3, distinct, with recurved styles. Eruit a single, generally 

 oblong 1-seeded berry. Seeds with a longitudinal furrow. Albumen 

 horny, embryo dorsal. 



Tall trees ; leaflets opposite or alternate, not fasciculate. 

 Foot of stem often surrounded by root-suckera ; leaflets mak- 

 ing a very acute angle with the common petiole . . 1. P. dactyU/erHf 

 No root-suckers ; leaflets making half a right angle with com- 

 mon petiole 2. P. 



A low shrub with a bulbous stem, or a small tree with a slender 



stem ; leaflets fasciculate . . . . . . . 3. P. 



1. P. dactylifera, Linn.; Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 786. — Vern. Khqjur, 

 khaji. The fruit : Khurma, ehuhdra, Tmkydn, Ithujiydn, kujran. 



A tail tree, attaining 100-120 ft., trunk covered with, the persistent 

 bases of petioles, the foot often surrounded by a dense mass of root-suckers. 

 Leaves grey, longer than those of P. sylvedris ; pinnae 8-16 iu. long, reg- 

 ularly distichous, often approximate in twos or threes on the same side 

 of petiole ; petiole grey, laterally compressed, almost flat. Male panicles 

 white, 'compact, 6-9 in. long, on a short peduncle j flowers \-\ in. long, 

 sweet-scented; sheaths outside with rusty down. Peduncles of female 

 inflorescence j-J in. broad, sometimes broader below, spikes 12-24 in. 

 long. Pruit oblong, 1-3 in. long, generally reddish- or yellowish-brown 

 when ripe, pulp fleshy sweet. IsTumerous varieties cultivated, differing in 

 colour, shape, and taste of the firuit. Seed cylindric, with a longitudinal 

 furrow in front, and a small cylindric embryo in the middle of the rounded 



