XXIII. FALMM. 813 



Ploweks usually diclivious, sessile, or pedicelled on a simple or branched spaddx. 

 Caltx and corolla 3-merous. Stamens usually 6, hypogynous or perigynous. Ovakt 

 free, with 1-3 coherent or free carpels ; ovules solitary in each cell, rarely geminate. 

 Fbuit a herry or drupe. Seed albuminous. Embkto peripheric. — Stem woody. 

 Leaves alternate, petiole sheathing, Hade usually laciniate. 



Perennial woody plants, elegant or majestic in habit. Peimabt boot decaying 

 early, and replaced by numerous adventitious roots, which are developed at the base 

 of the trunk, and form a compact conical mass, often very voluminous, and rising 

 more or less above the soil, and in certain cases raising the trunk, and supporting it 

 like the shrouds of a ship. Trunk (stipe) usually tall and slender, sometimes short 

 and tumid [Geonoma and Phoenix acaulis, Astrocaryum, acaule, &c.), or a short and 

 creeping inclined stock, or forming underground a branched rhizome, the top of 

 which, crowned by leaves, is on. the surface of the soil (fifafeaZ, EAopts); simple, or 

 very rarely dichotomous {Hyphoene, &c.), sub-cylindric, or rarely swollen tcJwards the 

 middle [Iriartea, Acrocomia, Jubcea), with or without nodes, smooth or armed with 

 hairs, which are thickened and elongated into spines {Martinezia, Bactris), usually 

 rough and annulated by the persistent bases of the leaves, sometimes marked with 

 spiral scars {Corypha elata). Leaves springing from the terminal bud, alternate, 

 base sheathing the stem ; sheath sometimes with a ligulate prolongation at the upper 

 part {8abal, Gopernicia, &c.), and usually decomposing into a fibrous network after 

 the decomposition of the leaf; petiole convex below ; blade pinnatisect or flabellate, 

 or peltate [Licuala peltata), or simply split; segments or pinnules callous at the 

 base, quite distinct, or coherent below, folded longitudinally in vernation, with 

 margins recurved [or erect or depressed], often split along the secondary nerves; 

 nerves sometimes persistent and resembling filaments, sometimes much prolonged 

 in tendril-like appendages [Calamus). Inploeesoenoe axillary. Spadix {regime) 

 furnished with an herbaceous or almost woody spathe, monophyllous, or Com- 

 posed of several distichous bracts, wholly or partially enveloping the inflorescence, 

 or considerably shorter than it. Flowers small, usually dioecious or monoecious, 

 rarely g [Corypha, Bahal, &c.), shortly pedicelled or sessile, often sunk in the pits 

 of the spadix, furnished with a bract and 2 opposite bracteoles, free or coherent, 

 sometimes reduced to a callosity, or 0. Perianth double, persistent, coriaceoiis, 

 formed of a calyx and a calycoid corolla. Sepals 3, distinct or more or less 

 coherent, often keeled. Petals 3, more or less distinct, aestivation valvate in 

 the $ flowers, imbricate-convolute in the $ . Stamens hypogynous on a sub-fleshy 

 disk, or perigynous at the base of the perianth, usually 6, 2-seriate, opposite to the 

 sepals and petals, rarely 3 (sp. Areca, sp. Phoenix), or multiples of 3 (15-30 in 

 Borassus, 24-36 in Lodoieea), sometimes rudimentary in the $ flowers ; filaments 

 distinct, or united at the base into a tube or cup ; anthers introrse, or sometimes 

 extrorse 2-celled, linear, dorsifixed, dehiscence longitudiaal. Carpels 3 (rarely 2-1), 

 distinct, or coherent into a sub-globose or 3-lobed ovary, with 1-3 cells, of which 2 

 are very often arrested, usually rudimentary in the $ flowers ; styles continuous with 

 the back of the carpels, coherent, or rarely sub-distinct; stigmas simple; ovules 

 rarely geminate and collateral in each cell, usually solitary, fixed to the central angle 



