The Palms of British East India. 479 



itself, crowded, broad cuneate, less obliquely praemorse, and generally 

 not produced on the outer side ; but the upper ones gradually assume 

 the form of the other pinnules, which is narrow cuneate, with the outer 

 edge caudato-acuminate ; there are about 22-24 to each pinna, 12-15 

 inches long, 1^-2 inches broad, those of the uppermost pinnae very 

 narrow, even so as to be almost equilateral. All are sharply toothed, 

 lobed and erose, coriaceous, plicate, green. Terminal pinnules broadly 

 cuneate, two-lobed, or perhaps generally three-lobed. 



Spadices very large and long (10-12 feet) : upper ones flowering first, 

 and so on, till that next the ground has flowered, when the tree dies. 

 Peduncle curved, stout, entirely covered with large, greyish, coriaceous, 

 leathery, \-\\ foot long, closely imbricated spathes. Spikes very long, 

 pendulous, level-topped, resembling a huge docked tail. Flowers im- 

 mensely numerous, in threes, the central and lowermost later in de- 

 velopment, female. Male sepals three, roundish, cordate, ciliate, imbricat- 

 ed. Petals oblong, reddish. Stamens about 38 ; filaments short, white ; 

 anthers about as long as the petals, linear, generally with bifid or 

 emarginate points. No rudiment of a Pistillum. 



Female flowers much the same, but the sepals are broader, more ciliate, 

 the corolla shorter, greenish. Sterile stamina three, opposite the sepals 

 and angles of ovarium, resembling young anthers. Ovarium subtrigonal, 

 roundish, bilocular, cells fore and aft. Ovules solitary, erect. Stigmata 

 2, cordate, white. Berry reddish, " about the size of a nutmeg, covered 

 with a thin, yellow, acrid bark, but nothing that deserves the name of 

 pulp. Seed generally solitary," (Roxb.) " Albumen horny. Embryo 

 conical, centric." (Martius.) 



This and the Phoenix sylvestris when allowed to reach 

 its full size unmutilated, are the handsomest and most use- 

 ful palms of the Peninsula of India. 



11 This tree is highly valuable to the natives of the coun- 

 tries where it grows in plenty. It yields them, during the 

 hot season, an immense quantity of toddy or palm wine. I 

 have been informed that the best trees will yield at the rate 

 of one hundred pints in the twenty-four hours. The pith 

 or farinaceous part of the trunk of old trees, is said to be 

 equal to the best Sago ; the natives make it into bread, and 

 boil it into thick gruel ; these form a great part of the diet 

 of those people ; and during the late famine, they suffered 



