The Palms of British East India, 2\ 



S. laevis. Rumph. Hb. Amb. I. 76. fide Jack. Jack. 

 Mai. Misc. Mem. 3rd in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. 1. p. 

 266. Ham. Comm. in Hb. Amb. 5. 320. Sagus inermis. 

 Roxb. Fl. Ind. 3. 623 ? 



Hab. — Sumatra and Malacca, W. Jack. 



" This valuable Tree rises to the height of about twenty feet, and is 

 generally surrounded by numerous smaller and younger plants which 

 spring up around it after the manner of the Plantain (Musa 

 sapientumj. The stem, which is about as thick as that of the Cocoa- 

 nut tree, is annulated by the vestiges of the fallen leaves, and the 

 upper part is commonly invested with their withered sheaths. The 

 leaves resemble those of the Cocoa, but grow more erect, and are 

 much more persistent, so that the foliage has not the same tufted 

 appearance, but has more of the graceful ascending curve of that of 

 the Saguerus Rumphii : they are pinnate, unarmed ; the leaflets 

 linear, acute, carinate, and smooth. The tree is from fifteen to 

 twenty years in coming to maturity, the fructification then appears, 

 and it soon after decays and dies. The inflorescence is terminal ; 

 several spadices rise from the summit of the stem, enveloped in 

 sheaths at their joints, and alternately branched. It is on these 

 branches that the flowers and fruit are produced, and they are 

 generally from five to eight inches in length. They are of a brown 

 colour, and closely imbricated with broad scariose scales, within 

 which is a quantity of dense ferruginous wool, in which the minute 

 flowers are imbedded and completely concealed. Each scale supports 

 two flowers, which are hermaphrodite, and scarcely larger than a 

 grain of turnip-seed. The Perianth is six-leaved, of which three are 

 interior, the leaflets nearly equal. Stamina six ; filaments very short ; 

 anthers oblong, two-celled. Ovaria three, connected together in the 

 middle, each monosporous. Style none. Stigma small. Fruit single, 

 nearly globular, somewhat depressed at the summit, but with a short, 

 acute, mucro or point in the centre ; it is covered with scales which 

 are imbricated from the top to the bottom, and are shining, of a green- 

 ish straw-colour, of a rhomboidal shape, and with a longitudinal furrow 

 down their middle. Below the scales, the rind is of a spongy consis- 

 tence, and the fruit contains a single seed, of rather an irregular 



