461 The Palms of British East India. 



A. tigillaria. Jack. Mai. Misc. {Calc. Journ. Nat. Hist, 4. 

 p. 12.) 



Habit. — On the borders of Paddy swamps, Malacca, com- 

 mon. Malayan name, Nibong. In forests, Lainear, to the 

 South of Mergui ? 



Descr. — A very elegant Palm. Trunk 30-40 feet high, distinctly 

 annulate, armed, surrounded with offsets at the base. Crown thick, 

 graceful. Leaves pinnate, 10-12 feet in length; petiole roundish, armed, 

 upwards very scurfy ; pinnce about 2 feet long, conduplicate at the base, 

 very much acuminate, pendulous, coriaceous, many veined, principal 

 keel above excentric, ferruginous scurfy, underneath bearing scales 

 attached by their middle. 



Spadices from the axillae of lately fallen leaves ; peduncle slightly 

 armed; branches many, long, undulato-flexuose, lower ones divided, 

 upper simple. A rudimentary bractea at the base of the lower ones. 

 Spathes (complete) two, boat-shaped, bicarinate, of a stout texture, 

 outer green, covered here and there with whitish-ferruginous scurf, 

 armed on the dorsum especially about the carinae ; inner almost unarm- 

 ed, more scurfy, velvety to the touch. 



Flowers crowded, one female between two males, or in pairs, one male 

 and one female, the former more advanced. Male ; sepals subcordate, 

 cuspidate, carinate, anticous one the largest. Petals 3, valvate, coriace- 

 ous, suddenly acuminate into subulate bristles, spreading. Stamina 6 ; 

 filaments short, stout, cohering slightly with the petals ; anthers large, 

 sagittate, obtuse. Rudiment of a Pistillum rather large, white, of three 

 carpel leaves distinct nearly from the base. 



Female flowers suffulted by a broad inconspicuous bracte. Sepals 

 imbricate, suborbicular, concave, fleshy, coriaceous. Petals larger, im- 

 bricate. Rudimentary stamina 3 or none. Ovarium roundish, of the size 

 of a small pea, 1 -celled. Style none. Stigmata 3, connivent. Ovulum 

 appense pendulous. 



Spadix of the fruit: branches 1-2 feet long, pendulous, purplish-san- 

 guineous, with an articulated appearance. Berry globose, size of a car- 

 bine bullet, surrounded at the base by the perianth, marked towards 

 the apex on one side with an areola, bearing in the centre the remains 

 of the stigmata; endocarp ; fibres few, thin. Seed appense just below 

 the areola ; funicle large, sub-intrant, so that the transverse section is 

 sub-reniform. Tegument thin, scarcely separable from the endocarp. 

 Albumen horny, deeply ruminate. Embryo oblong-conical, basilar. 



