The Palms of British East India. 455 



Descr. — A lofty palm. Trunk 40 feet high. Crown dark green, ample. 

 Leaves pinnate; 'petiole scurfy, plano-convex: lamina 8-9 feet long, 4-4 § 

 broad, in outline lanceolate acuminate; pinna 2 feet long, 1J-1J inch 

 wide, linear, acuminate, unequally bipartite, shining, very smooth, up- 

 permost inequilateral, sub-erose at the points : central vein and 5 others 

 forming as many keels above, the central underneath bearing scales at- 

 tached by the base. 



Spadix ascending, altogether green ; branches stiff, stout, above 

 flexuoso-torulose owing to niches in which the flowers are lodged. 

 Spathes not seen. 



Lower flowers one female between two males, upper males in pairs. 

 Males small ; sepals imbricate, carinate, hard, much shorter than the co- 

 rolla, margins sub-membranaceous, denticulate, inner rather the longest. 

 Corolla valvate, hard, tripartite to the base; petals oblong-lanceolate, 

 sub-obtuse. Stamina numerous ; anthers linear-sagittate. No rudiment of 

 a Pistillum. Female (in bud.) Sepals and petals scarcely distinguishable, 

 imbricate, with very broad bases. No rudiments of stamina. Ovarium 

 large, white, oblong, 1 -celled, sub-compressed, divided at the apex into 

 3-cuneate sub-recurved lobes, each with a line of stigmatic tissue along 

 the central line of the inner face. Ovulum one, attached nearly along its 

 whole length ; foramen inferior. 



Spadix of the fruit spreading, presenting one or two annuli on its very 

 stout base : branches angular, thickened at the base. Fruit pendulous 

 from its weight, ovate, size of a large egg, surrounded at the base by 

 the perianth, at the apex presenting the three styles : colour orange, 

 smell unpleasant like spoiled sour fruit ; outer substance thick, firm, of 

 yellow cellular tissue and longitudinal fibres, which are more numerous 

 towards the putamen. This is thin, hard, crustaceous. Seed one, erect ; 

 tegument thin, shining, light brown. Albumen densely horny, much ru- 

 minate. Embryo basilar. 



The aspect of this Palm is very different from that of A. 

 Catechu, the size being much greater, the crown blackish- 

 green, the leaves stiffer and at a distance having a truncate 

 appearance ; the Malacca specimen when viewed closely 

 has the appearance of a cocoa-nut tree. It is also to be 

 known from A. Catechu by the round torulose branches of 

 the spadix, the binary not solitary distichous polyandrous 

 males, by the females not being secund, and by their greater 



