462 The Palms of British East India. 



Descr.* — Stem arundinaceous with distinct subclavate lengthened 

 joints; varying in height from l£ to 3-4 feet; parts lately exposed 

 scurfy. Leaves rather distant, in the larger specimens, 4| feet long, 

 of which the naked base of the petiole is about 6 inches; pinnce 

 opposite, about a foot long, exceedingly and obliquely acuminate, 

 above 3-4 keeled ; terminal lobe deeply bipartite, many keeled, trun- 

 cate and lobed at the apex : the bilobed leaves of the smaller 

 specimens cuneate, forked, 12-14 inches long, 2\ inches across the 

 sinus, apex obliquely prsemorse, 4-5-fid, divisions obtuse, bifid. 



Spadix 3-4 inches long, simple in the smaller specimens, 2-3 times 

 branched in the larger ; branches compressed, flexuose. Spathe oblong, 

 about 4 inches long, 1 inch broad, acute. Flowers closely packed ; one 

 female between two males: the former distichous. 



Male flowers rather large, angular. Calyx membranaceous, minute, 

 three-toothed. Petals much larger, unequal, (one nearly as large as both 

 others,) oblong, oblique, cuspidate-acuminate. Stamens about 15 ; fila- 

 ments short ; anthers linear. No rudiment of a Pistillum. 



Female flowers with a broad short bracte at their base. Perianth of 6 

 coriaceo-scarious leaves, about equal in length ; the inner (petals) the 

 smallest. No rudiments of stamina. Ovarium oblong-ovate ; style very 

 short ; stigma large, obliquely discoid. 



Fruit spadices 3-6 inches long, branches slender, flexuose. Fruit 

 orange-coloured or red, exactly distichous, one at each flexure, oblong, 

 6| lines long, 3| broad, mammillate-attenuate at the apex, surrounded 

 at the base by the cup-shaped perianth. Seed of the same shape, covered 

 by a chartaceous integument, marked with longitudinal lines along 

 which the integument is inflected. Albumen horny, ruminate. Embryo 

 minute, conical, basilar. 



This plant varies much in size. Roxburgh describes the 

 branches of the spadix as woolly : his drawing also repre- 

 sents the petals as acute, not cuspidato-acuminate. 



The specimens from Malacca called Pinang Boorang 

 Paday, from which the description of the male and female 

 flowers is taken, are of a much larger stature in every respect, 

 the spadices also are branched, the fruit much more elonga- 

 ted, and with a tendency to be curved. Further examination 

 may show them to belong to a distinct species. 



* Da&cR.—Slem and leaves much the same as in A. gracilis. Spadices slender- 

 er, 3-4 times branched. Female Mowers distichous, distant. 

 Hab ix. —Assam ? Moosiuai, near Churra Tunjee, at an elevation of 4000 feet. 



