€aryota.] CXLII. PALMJS,. 1681 



1. C Rumphiana (after G. E. Rumph). Var. AlberlL A tall stout glabrous 

 bipinnate palm. Leaves 16 to 18ft. long, and 10 to 14ft. broad. Leaf-segments 

 very oblique, half fan-sh?iped, navi,ch plicate, 6 to I2in. long, thick, coriaceous, 

 irregularly but usually toothed, sometimes more or less pointed, the lower point 

 often produced into a long obtuse point, sometimes shorter than the next fold. 

 Peduncles very stout, Jbearing a vast number of long — all about of equal length, 

 say 3 to 4ft. — thong-lilte spikes of monoecious flo-^vers, 2 males with a female 

 between them ; 3 outer segments of male perianth imbricate, rotund, ciliate, 2 

 lines diameter ; 3 inner segments valva,te, 6 lipes long, very hard ; stamens 

 numerous. Fruit , globular, exceeding lin. diameter, white until quite ripe, 

 when it becomes a deep purple. — C. Alberti, P. v. M. ; Wendl. and Drude in 

 Linnsea, xxsix. 221 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. vii. 144. 



Hab.: Somerset, Cape York Peninsula. 



9. NIPA, Wurmb. 



(Vernacular name in the Philippine Islands.) 



Spathes many, sheathing. Spadix terminal, branched, erect, drooping in fruit ; 

 rflowers monoecious, male in catkin-like lateral branches of the spadix, female in 

 a globose terminal head, perianth glumaceous. Male flowers minute mixed with 

 setacious braeteoles ; sepals linear, with broad truncate inflexed tips, imbricate ; 

 petals smaller ; stamens 8, filaments cuneate, anthers linear, basifixed ; pistilode 

 none. Female flowers much larger ; sepals 6, rudimentary, displaced ; 

 staminodia none, 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 pyrimidal tips and infra-apical stigmas, pericarp fleshy and 

 £brous, endocarp spongy and floury. Seed erect grooved on one side, testa 

 coriaceous viscid within, and adherent to the endocarp, hilum broad ; albumen 

 •equable, hollow ; embryo basal, obconical. 



1. N. fruiticans (shrubby), var. Neameana, Bail. Proc. Eoy. Soc. ijl. v. 

 147. Stem short, thick, from a stout creeping rhizome, which is much 

 flattened and about 1ft. broad, with a thickness of about 6in., rooting from the 

 under surface only, the upper surface quite' smooth. Leaves averaging about 6 

 or 7 to a plant, 4 usually living, and 2 or 8 decaying, pinnate, 25 to 80ft. long, 

 the base very stout and clasping the very short erect stem. Pinnas approximate, 

 •of from 50 to 60 pairs, 2 to 4ft. long, 2 to 8^in. broad, plicate, the midrib 

 sharply angled beneath, the upper side bearing lanceolate dark-brown centrally 

 attached scales, two prominent ribs on each side of the midrib, margins strongly 

 nerved, the midrib confluent with the lower margin below the apex, forming an 

 angular point of several inches in length. Peduncle 8 or 4ft. high, bearing 3 

 large and many small sheathing bracts ; the lowest larger one very obtuse, 

 having a strap-like appearance from the rather broad wings formed on either side, 

 other bracts all pointed and much smaller, and 1 or 2 keeled ; panicle of 5 

 branches, the lower lateral ones male, each much divided, the divisions ending in 

 male catkins 1 or 2in. long and about Jin. in diameter, digitate, the terminal 

 branch bearing a spherical head of from 1ft. to 16in. in diameter, composed of 

 more or less angular fibrous drupes, each about 6in. long by 8in. broad, when 

 ripe of a chestnut-brown and more or less glossy, each containing 1 round seed, 

 which becomes very hard and ivory-like when old. 



Hab.: Herbert Biver, Arthur Neame, 1880. 



Mr. Neame states that the Herbert Eiver natives make use of the seeds when in an unripe 

 state for food, as is done in nthfir I'ountries where the Nipa is indigenous. 



