852 The Palms of British East India. 



heres to the thin envelope that separates with the seed. Seed oblong, 

 deeply grooved (margins of the groove slightly wrinkled) along its 

 whole length on one side, on the other with a slight incomplete fur- 

 row, in the centre of which is a depression with a mammillate fun- 

 dus, the situation of the embryo. Albumen on a transverse section 

 horse-shoe- shaped. Embryo at or a little above the middle of the 

 dorsal face. 



My materials do not enable me to point out any distinc- 

 tion between this and P. dactylifera,* the true Date Palm. 

 In appearance they would seem to be indistinguishable. Rox- 

 burgh says nothing in the Flora Indica regarding this in ex- 

 plication of his specific character. But in a pencil note to 

 the unfinished drawing of P. sylvestris, he says the male 

 flowers of P. dactylifera are most exactly like. Buchanan 

 Hamilton considers it the wild state of the true Date Palm, 

 so much cultivated in Arabia and Africa, and states, that on 

 comparing young plants, he had not been able to see the 

 smallest difference, except that the Arabian plant was rather 

 the largest and more vigorous.f Compared with Gaertner's 

 figure of P. dactylifera, 1, t. 9. the fruit of P. sylvestris is 

 considerably smaller. The embryo also is on the central 

 line. 



I have only seen Martius's character of P. dactylifera, 

 (loc. cit.) at which species the Botanic Garden copy of his 

 Palmae breaks off. 



* The plant called Phaenix dactylifera of these Gardens does not attain a greater 

 height than 4-5 feet. Trunk remarkably stout, 1 foot or more in diameter, marked 

 with the scars of the petioles. Leaves 7-8 feet long. Petioles compressed a long 

 way down, in the lower 2 feet bearing many stout rigid channelled spines. Pin- 

 nee fascicled, their direction as in P. sylvestris, but in a less marked degree, hila- 

 rious when young, 1 foot long, 1 inch broad, subulato-acuminate, those next the 

 spines longest and narrowest. 



Sjiadix'l-'lji feet long, branched at the apex; peduncle 1-1J foot long, much 

 compressed. 



This plant is evidently closely allied to P. sylvestris, and with P. farinifera of 

 the Gardens forms a complete transition from P. sylvestris to P. acaulis. .Both 

 it and this so-called P. farinifera require more examination. 



t Comm, in Hon. Mai. op. cit. p. 82, 83, 85. 



