350 The Palms of British East India. 



May 1792, it has saved many lives. Rice was too dear, and at 

 times not to be had, which forced many of the poor to have re- 

 course to these sorts of food. Fortunately it is one of the most 

 common plants on this part of the coast, particularly near the sea." — 

 Roxb o. c, L c. 



There is a (male) specimen called P. farinifera in the 

 Botanic Gardens. It has a trunk 4 feet high, 6-8 inches in dia- 

 meter, rough with the persistent bases of the petioles. The 

 leaves are 3-4 feet long, spreading, the pinna in subopposite 

 fascicles, (the lower generally in pairs,) sub-4 farious, (upper 

 series sub-ascending, lower very spreading, but obliquely) ca- 

 naliculate, conduplicate at the base, glaucescent, subulato- 

 acuminate, 10 inches long, 6 lines wide, those next the spin- 

 ous ones, which occupy the lowest 8-10 inches of the petiole, 

 longest and narrowest. The spadix is 1-1| foot long, the pe- 

 duncle well exserted from the axilla and compressed. 



This can scarcely be Roxburgh's plant, since it has a dis- 

 tinct stem and fasciculate pinnae. It seems exactly interme- 

 diate in foliage between P. acaulis and P. dactylifera of these 

 Gardens. 



68. (4.) P. sylvestris, arborea, pinnis densis fasciculatis 

 rigidis lineari-ensiformibus conduplicato-canaliculatis acumi- 

 natissimis, fructibus cylindraceo-oblongis, embryone ad vel 

 supra centrum faciei dorsalis. 



P. sylvestris. Roxb. Hort. Bengh. p. 73. Fl. lnd. 3. p. 

 787. Icones. ( fl. et. fr.) 15. t. 31. Ham. Comm. Hort. Mai. 

 Linn. Trans. 15. p. 86. Katou-indel. Rheede. Hort. Mai. 3. t. 

 22-25* 



Hab. — Common all over India, all soils and situations 

 seeming to suit equally well. Flowers at the beginning of the 

 hot-season, (Roxb.) 



* The fruit here figured is very much smaller, and of a different shape than it is 

 in Bengal, at least on uninjured trees. 



