424 CLXiii. PALMES.. (Beccari & Hook, f.) 



15. NZPA, Wurmb. 



A prostrate sestuarial gregarious palm ; stem (or rootstock) branched. 

 Leaves pinnatiseot ; leaflets lanceolate, plicate. Spathes many, Breathing. 

 Spadix terminal, branolied, erect, fruiting drooping ; flowers monoecious, 

 male in catkin-like lateral branches of the spadix, female in a globose 

 terminal head, perianth glumaceoua. Male fi. minute mixed with seta- 

 ceous bracteoles ; sepals linear, with broad truncate inflexed tips, imbricate ; 

 petals smaller ; stamens 3, filaments cuneate, anthers linear basifixed ; 

 pistillode 0. Fern. fi. much larger; sepals 6, rudimentary, displaced; 

 staminodes ; carpels 3, tips free, each with an oblique stigmatic line ; 

 ovules 3, erect. Fruit large globose, syncarp of many obovoid hexagonal 

 1-celled 1-seeded carpels, with pyramidal tips and infra-apical stigmas, 

 pericarp fleshy and fibrous, endooarp spongy and flowery. Seed erect, 

 grooved on one side, testa coriaceous viscid within, and adherent to 

 the endocarp, hiluni broad; albumen equable, hollow; embryo basilar, 

 obconic. 



1. N. fruticans, Wm-mh. in Verh. Bat. Genootsch. i. 349; ex Bhime 

 Humph, ii. 72 ; iii. 164, 166 ; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 305, t. 208 ; Lam. 

 Illustr. t. 897 ; Lahill. in Mem. Mus. Par. v. t. 21, 22 ; Oavd. Vuy. Bonite, 

 t. 67 ; Eunth Fnum. iii. 110, 589 ; Miq. FI. Ind. Bat. iii. 150 ; Griff. Notul. 

 iii. 168 ; Ic. PL Asiat. 244 ; Boxb. FI. Ind. iii. 650 ; Thw. Fnum. 327 ; 

 Kitrz. For. FI. u. 541. 



JTrom the Sundebbunds, southwards to the Malay Peninsula. Cetlon. — 

 DiSTBiE. Malay Archip. and Australia. 



Trunh or rootstock very stout. Leaves 15-30 ft. ; leaflets 4^5 ft., rigid, glaucous 

 beneath ; petiole 4-5 ft., very stout. Spadim 4-7 ft. ; peduncle 3-4, ft. Fruit as 

 large as a man's head; carpels 4-6 in. long, smooth, brown. — ^Not recorded as 

 existing in either coast of the Decoan Peninsula. 



16. PKCENZX, Linn. 



Low or tall dioecious palms. Leaves pinnate; leaflets lanceolate or 

 ensiform, sides induplicate. Spadices usually several, interfoliar, erect or 

 drooping in fruit, branched ; spathe basilar, complete, coriaceous : flowers 

 small, yellowish, coriaceous. Malefl., calyx cupular 8-toothed ; petals 3, 

 obliquely ovate, valvate ; stamens 6 (3-9), filaments subulate, anthers 

 erect, dorsifixed ; pistillode minute or 0. Fern. fl. globose, calyx of the 

 male, accrescent ; petals rounded, imbricate ; staminodes 6, or a 6-toothed 

 cup; carpels 3, free, stigmas sessile, uncinate; ovules erect. Fruit 

 oblong, terete, 1-seeded, stigma terminal, pericarp fleshy, endocarp mem- 

 branous. Beed oblong, ventrally grooved ; albumen equable or sub- 

 ruminate, embryo dorsal or subbasilar. — Species 10 or 11, African and 

 Asiatic. 



The following attempt at diagnosing the Indian species of Fhosnix is tentative, 

 and awaits mucb further knowledge of the living plants before it can be accepted as 

 trustworthy. The true Date, P. dactylifera, has been introduced into Sindh and 

 N.W. India.—/. D. H. 



* Embryo ventral. 



f Stem tall, (or short in P. zeylanica). 



