322 The Palms of British East India. 



lobis obtuse bifidis, spadice foliorum circiter longitudine, 

 ramis 3-7 spicigeris, spicis subulatis pubescentibus, floribus 

 bi-ternatis extus pubescentibus, calyce ovato ad medium 

 rotundate tripartito, bacca obovato-oblonga. 



Licuala spinosa, Willd. 2. p. 201. (excl. syn. Rumph.) 

 Roxb. Fl. Ind. 2. p. 181^? (excl. syn. Rumph. et Lam.) Syst. 

 Veg. ed. Sch. 2. p. 1301. Mart. Palm. p. 235. t. 135. I. II. 



Hab. — Common in wet places, particularly in hedges, 

 Malacca. Malayan name, Plass. Cultivated in the H. C. 

 Botanic Garden, where it flowers in the cold and ripens its 

 fruit in the hot season. 



Dj:scr. — A stout Palm, 10-12 feet high, forming dense tufts. 

 Trunk 2-4 inches in diameter, 8-10 feet high, marked with the 

 gears of the fallen petioles. Leaves 6-7 feet long. Petiole about 

 4-41 feet long, obtusely trigonal, margins armed throughout with 

 stout conical somewhat curved aculei. Lamina in outline orbi- 

 cularly reniform, about 4 feet across the broad diameter; pinnse 

 about 18, narrow cuneate; central ones about 2 feet long ; termi- 

 nal one 10-11 plicate, truncate, with as many lobes as plaits, the 

 lateral ones the deepest, all obtusely bifid ; the intermediate more 

 or less truncate, 3-5 lobed, lobes larger and deeper, but otherwise 

 similar to those of the terminal one, the lateral with oblique 3-lobed 

 ends. Ligula very narrow, \~\\ inch long, scarious. 



Spadix a little longer than the leaves, branches 7-10, adnate to 

 the axis as high as the points of the spathes. Spathes green, sprink- 

 led with brownish scurf, with scarious lacerated ends, occasionally 

 obliquely lacerated. Spikes to the lower branches several, stout, 

 subulate, downy, spreading, generally secund. 



Flowers sessile, in two's or three's, small, nearly ovate. Calyx 

 subovate, divided to the middle into three rounded teeth. Corolla 

 a little longer than the calyx, divided below the middle into three 

 broad lanceolate, acuminate segments. Annulus rather high, nearly 

 entire. Filaments (free,) short, setaceous. Anthers oblong-ovate. 

 Ovarium depressed, turbinate, sculptured at the apex. Style fili- 

 form, rather longer than the ovary. 



