THE 



CALCUTTA JOURNAL 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY 



The Palms of British East India. By W. Griffith, Esq. 

 F. L. S. Memb. Imp. Acad. Natur. Curios., Royal Ratisb. 

 Botan. Soc. y Asst. Surgeon, Madras Establishment. 



PALMIDiE.* 



Diagnosis. 



Truncus lignosus, cylindricus, ssepissime simplex. Folia 

 vernatione plicata, coriacea, flabelliformia vel pinnata. 

 Flores monoici, dioici, vel polygami, rarius hermaphroditi. 

 Perianthium duplex, utrumque triphyllum. Stamina hypo- 

 gyna, saepius 6, rarius indefinita, rarissime tria. Ovarium 

 unicum, liberum, triloculare (raro 1-2-loculare), aut tria 



* Families to end in idae, and Subfamilies in inae. Report on Zool. 

 Nomenclature — 1842, p. 45. 



Tt is to be regretted that Dr. Lindley's Nomenclaturef, which went so 

 far as to reform the variation that marked the nomenclature of families, 

 (even when there was no variation in the terminations of the supposed 

 typical genera) stopped short of that general uniformity, obtainable by 

 the adoption of the above rule, which is sufficiently prominent in most 

 of the popular writings of Mr. Swainson. The value of that general 

 uniformity will only be denied, I imagine, by those, who believe that 

 there is one Natural Law for plants, another for animals. 



t Introd. Nat. Syst. ed. 2nd 18*6. 

 VOL. V. NO. XVII. APRIL, 1844. B 



