The Palms of British East India. 97 



Spikes (or panicles) rather shorter than the spathes, slender, slightly 

 furfuraceous, many flowered. Lower divisions 2-3 flowered, upper 

 1 -flowered. Flowers of middling size, oblique, all pressed to one side 

 if viewed anticously, if posticously distichous* suffulted by a short 

 stout subulate bracteole. Male ; Calyx striate, angular, cup-shaped, 

 divided to the middle into three short oblong teeth, each ending in a 

 stout mucro. Corolla three times longer than the calyx, 3 -partite to 

 the base ; petals narrow-lanceolate, rather obtuse. Stamina six, almost 

 entirely distinct from the corolla, the longest J shorter than the 

 corolla. Filaments long, towards the base triangular and red, above 

 filiform, white. Anthers twice the length of the filaments, linear, 

 attached a little below the middle. A rudiment of the Pistillum. 



Female Spikes stouter, more ferruginous. Flowers fewer, larger, 

 distichous, lower on short stalks, the upper sessile. 



Calyx nearly round, with three teeth triangular in outline, mucro- 

 nate as in the male, coriaceous, scarcely striate, margins of teeth 

 villous. Corolla ventricose at the base, tripartite below the middle ; 

 segments oblong-lanceolate, acute. Stamina 6, united to corolla 

 as far as the base of its segments ; filaments subulate, flattened ; an- 

 thers effete, much smaller than in the male flowers. Ovary round- 

 ish-ovate, covered with exceedingly numerous reflexed scales ciliate 

 fimbriate, with long multifid points. Ovula three, erect, anatropous, 

 so close as to leave some doubt whether septa exist. Style short, 

 stout, divided nearly to the base, branches rather longer than the 

 corolla, subulate, inner faces stigmatose and canaliculate. 



Fruits crowded in the axillae of the spathes, which are now more 

 spread out and more indurated, generally 3-5 together, globular, 

 about the size of a carbine bullet, surrounded at the base by the 

 perianth ; terminated by the remains of the very short style ; very 

 hispid, or ramentaceous (each scale terminating in a fimbriate ramen- 

 tum ;) incompletely 3-celled. Seeds (immature) 1-3, when three, 

 convex-trigonal. Albumen solid. 



This species is of inferior value to most others, and is 

 chiefly used for making baskets. 



47. (2) P. Assamica^ (n. sp.) pinnis spathis 



calyce (fl. faem.) ad medium tripartito laciniis cuneato-rotun- 



o 



