482 CLXiil. PALMES. (Beccari & Hook, f.) [Borassus. 



fan-shaped, plicately multifid ; petiole spinotiB, ligule short. Spadices very- 

 large, simply branched ; peduncle sheathed with open spathes, males with 

 stout cylindric branches that are densely clothed with closely imbricating 

 bracts, enclosing spikelets of flowers which hence appear as if sunk in 

 cavities of the branch ; fern, spadix sparingly branched, bearing few 

 scattered solitary flowers. Male fl. small, mixed with scaly bracts, secnnd 

 in two series in a small spikelet, and protruding one by one from the 

 cavities of the branch of the spadix, as the rachis of the spikelet elongates ; 

 perianth glumaceous ; sepals 3, narrowly cuneate, tip in flexed truncate, 

 imbricate; petals shorter than the sepals, obovate-spathulate, imbricate; 

 stamens 6, anthers subseseile large oblong ; pistillodes of 3 bristles. Fern, 

 fl. larger, globose; perianth fleshy greatly accrescent; sepals reniform, 

 imbricate ; petals smaller, convolute ; staminodes 6-9 ; ovary globose, sub- 

 trigonous, entire or 3-4-partite, 3-4-oelled ; stigmas 3, sessile recurved ; 

 ovules basilar, erect. Fruit a large snbglobose drupe with 1-3-obcordate 

 fibrous pyrenes ; pericarp thinly fleshy, stigmas terminal. Seeds oblong, 

 top 3-lobed ; testa adherent to the pyrene ; albumen equable hollow ; 

 embryo subapieal. 



B. flabellifer, Linn. Sp. PI 1187 ; B. flabelliformis, Murr. Si/st Ed. 

 xiii. 827 ; £oxb. Cor. PI. i. 50, t. 71, 72 ; Fl. Ind. iii. 790 ; Griff. Notul. iii. 

 M7 ; Mart. Sist. Nat. Palm. iii. 221, t. 108, 121, 162 ; Kunth Enwm iii. 

 222 ; Thw. Fnum. 329 ; Prand. For. Fl. 544; Xurz For. Fl. ii. 529 ; Bhiine 

 Rwmph. ii. 88 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 45. B. dichotomus, White in Qrah. 

 Cat. Bomh. PI. 226. B. aethiopum. Mart. I.e. 221. Lontauus domestica, 

 Bumph. Serh. Amh. i. t. 10. Ham. in Mern. Wem. Soc. v. 314 ; Osertn. 

 Fruct. i. 21, t. 8.—Bheede Sort. Mai. i. t. 9, 10. 



Cultivated throughout the plains of India, Buema and Cbilon. — Disteib. 

 Malaya; Afr. trop. 



Trunlc 60-70 ft., very rarely branching, often swollen ahove the middle. Leaves 

 6-10 ft. diain., palmately fan-shaped, rigidly coriaceous ; segments 2-4 ft., linear, 

 2-fid, margins spinnlose. Spadix male and fem. several feet long and very stoat. 

 Malefi. small ; fem. 1 in. diam. Drupe broadly obovoid, brown, 8 in. diam. 



34. COCOS, Linn. 



Unarmed, monoecious palms. Leaves pinnatisect ; leaflets narrow. 

 Spadix erect, at length drooping, simply panicled ; branches bearing 

 scattered fem. fl., often between 2 males towards their bases and males 

 above. Spathes 2 or more, lower short, upper fusiform or clavate ; bracts 

 various ; perianth coriaceous. Male fl. unsymmetrio ; sepals small, val- 

 vate ; petals oblong, acute, valvate ; stamens 6, filaments subulate, anthers 

 linear, erect ; pistillode minute or 0. Fem. fl. usually much larger, ovoid ; 

 perianth greatly accrescent; sepals imbricate; petals shorter, convolute 

 with imbricate tips ; disk annular or ; ovary 3-celled, usually 1-ovuled ; 

 style short, stigmas recurved; ovules subbasilar. Fruit large, ovoid 

 terete or trigonous, 1-seeded, style terminal ; pericarp thick, fibrous ; endo- 

 carp bony or stony, with 3 basal pores, the remains of the 3 cells. Seed 

 cohering with the eudocarp ; albumen solid or hollow, or merely lining 

 the endocarp with a thick hard coat ; embryo opposite one pore. — Species 

 about 30, all American, one of them cosmopolitan in the tropics. 



C. nucifera, Linn. Sp. PI. 1188 ; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 123. 

 t. 62, 75, 88 ; Kunth Fnum. iii. 286 ; Boxh. Cor. PI. i. 52, t. 73 ; Fl. Ind. iii. 



