466 The Palms of British East India. 



unarmed ; branches pendulous, flexuose, about equal, 2 or 3 times 

 branched or simple, 1-2 feet long, each suffulted by a yellow bracte with a 

 broad base, the upper of which degenerate into scales. Spathes two, com- 

 plete, acutely margined, coriaceous, armed with rather weak brown- black 

 spines, 1-1 \ foot long, of a greenish colour outside when mature, 

 yellow and polished inside : the inner one with a stout, unarmed cuspis . 

 incomplete also two, cuspidate, armed, very unequally conduplicate. 

 Flowers about 4 ranked, inserted just above a protuberance of the 

 branch of the spadix : lower ones, one female between two males, upper 

 males in pairs. 



Male calyx of three imbricate, carinate, sub-membranaceous sepals. 

 Petals 3, valvate, subulate or almost setaceo-acuminate. Stamina 6, 

 sagittate. Rudiment of a Pistillum rather large, of three, sometimes two, 

 imperfect carpel-leaves. 



Female-calyx, sepals roundish-cordate, imbricated. Corolla conical in 

 bud. No rudimentary stamina ? Ovarium of one larger complete carpel, 

 and two incomplete ones.* Style none. Stigma (of the perfect ovule 

 bearing carpel) linear, running nearly half way to the base of the ovari- 

 um. Ovulum anatropous. 



Spadix of the fruit ; branches 2-4 feet long, pendulous, without 

 spathes, each suffulted by a coriaceous acuminate broad-based bracte. 

 Fruit sessile, size of a musket-ball, purplish-black, surrounded at the 

 base by the perianth, oblique, the true apex pointed out by a con- 

 spicuous mamilla on one side near the middle; epicarp coriaceous ; fibres 

 very few ; endocarp membranous. Seed round, appense-pendulous, at- 

 tached by a broad base, whitish-brown, reticulate with white veiny 

 lines ; hilum large, with a tendency to have an entering process. Al- 

 humen horny, deeply ruminate. Embryo not observed. 



This species is allied to A. tigillaria, but is very distinct in 

 the spathes and fruit. The flowers also are much more 

 crowded, and generally appear to have the usual arrange- 

 ment ; viz. one female between two males. The young spa- 

 dices from the contrast in colour between the spathes and 

 their spines and the waviness and adpression of these have 

 the appearance of tortoise-shell. 



* These are folded together, the margins united about the middle, above free, 

 and evidently stigmatic. 



