Phcenix.'] clxiii, PALMBiB. (Becoari & Hook, f.) 425 



1. P. sylvestris, Soxb. Sort. Beng. 73; Fl. Ind. iii. 787; trunk 

 solitary stout, petiole spinous, leaflets 1-2 ft. fascicled 2-4-farious rigid 

 glaucous green, male spadix 2-3 ft., fruit 1-1:^ in. long, terete. Mart. 

 Hist. Nat, Palm. iii. 276 {excl. syn. Linn. & Kaempf.) 326, t. 136. Kunth 

 JEnum. iii. 255 ; Wall. Cat. 8602 ; Oriff. in Oalc. Journ. Nat. Hist. v. 350 ; 

 Falms Brit. 141, t. 228 A ; ? Balz. S( Gila. Bomb. Fl. 278 ; Brand. For. 

 Fl. 554: ; Kurz,For. Fl. ii. 635; Becc. Males, iii. 347, 364, t. 43, f. 3. 

 Elate sylvestris, Zinn. Sp. PI. 1189, in pari. Katou Indel, Sam. in 

 Trans. Linn. Sac. xv. 86. — Rheede Hort. Mai. iii. t. 22, 25. 



Cultivated throughout the plains of India and Bitrma. Wild in the Indus 

 basin, Aitchison. 



Trunk 25-40 ft., clothed with the persistent bases of petioles. Leaves 10-15 ft., 

 quite glabrous. Spathe 12-16 in., scurfy, petiole short. Spadices erect, fruiting 

 inclined with spreading branches ; brandies of male filifoi'in ; male fl. J-J in. long. 

 Fruiting peduncle short, 6 in. or more. Fruit orange yellow, seed rounded at botli 

 ends, pale brown. — Very near P. dactt/lifera and possibly the origin of that plant, of 

 which the leaflets point more forward and are of a brigliter green, and the seeds are 

 acute at both ends, but most variable in this respect and often imperfect. The 

 Bombay Flora is cited above with doubt, as its authors imply that the leaflets are 

 not fascicled. They say " Roxburgh says the leaflets are fascicled, this is surely a 

 mistake." They mention another species as growing in the Hewra Garden, and 

 brought from the Ghats, with a stem 6-8 ft. high, and leaves more slender and 

 delicate than sylvestris and acamlis. The Elate sylvestris of Linnaeus includes tliis 

 and a Ceylon palm (see P. zeylanica). — Griflith observes that Eheede's figure repre- 

 sents the fruit as very mucli smaller and of a different shape from that of the Bengal 

 plant. The whole subject wants a careful study. 



2. P. zejrlanicaj Trimen in Journ. Boi. 1885, 267 ; Syst. Cat. 

 Zeyl. Fl. 96 ; stem 14 ft. or less, leaflets subequidistant quadrifarious 

 bright green rigid, fruiting spadix with long slender spreading branches, 

 fruit scarlet then dark purple. P. zeylanica, Sb?-^,- Sooh.f. inKewBeport, 

 1882, 63. P. sylvestris, Thtoaites Fnum. 329. P. pusilla, Ocerin. Fruct. i. 

 24, t. 9 ; Mwrt. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 273, 321, t. 136 (partly as to dsscr., 

 and excl. tigs, x., xi., in t. W., and 1-15 in t. 124). Elate sylvestris, Linn. 

 8p. PI. 1189 {the Ceylon plant only). 



Ceylon ; in shady woods. 



Stem 8-20 ft., rarely much shorter. Leaves rather short ; leaflets very many, 

 not fascicled, 7-10 in., pungent, spreading at right angles. Fruit ^ in. or rather 

 more, i in. diam. Seed nearly as long, with the groove dilating into a canal of 

 various forms. — (Trimen's appropriate name should replace Gsertner's misleading 

 one, even if Gsertner had been right in assuming his plant to be the " Palma dacty- 

 lifera aculeata minima " of Plum. Gen. Amer. 3, which he cites doubtfully as a 

 synonym, aud which is an American plant. — J. L. H.) 



3. P. rupicola, T. Anders, in Journ. Linn. Soc. xi. 13; trunk 

 solitary slender naked, leaflets IJ ft. bifarious and not fascicled flaccid 

 bright green, fem. spadix .3-4 ft. long pedunoled, fruit | in. long. Becc. 

 Males, iii. 348, 396. P. Andersoni, Oat. Sort. Calcut. No. 119 (1886-7), 

 p. 29 ? ; Oard. Ghron. 1877, ii. 45, fig. 4. — Phoenicoidea, Griff. Journals, 

 46. 



SiKKiM Himalaya, alt. 400-1400 ft., Anderson. Assam and the Mishmi 

 Hills, Griffith. 



Trunk 15-20 ft. by 8 in. diam. Leaves 10 ft., quite glabrous ; petiole com- 

 pressed. Spadices elongated, much compressed, females with a few fascicled spikes 

 on the acute margins near the apex ; spathe 1 ft. long. Fruit oblong, shining. 



