PHCEN] 



Wlye Enra^urg of JSatanji. 



878 



by different names, according to their 

 shape, size, quality, and time of ripening 

 The fruit, however, is not the only valu- 

 able part of this widely dispersed tree, for, 

 as with the cocoa-nut tree, nearly every 

 part is applied to some useful purpose. The 

 huts of the poorer classes are entirely con- 

 structed of its leaves ; the fibre (lif) sur- 

 rounding the bases of their stalks is used 

 for making ropes and coarse cloth, the 

 stalks themselves for crates, baskets, 

 brooms, walking-sticks, &c, and the wood 

 for building substantial houses; the heart 

 of young leaves is eaten as a vegetable ; the 

 sap affords an intoxicating beverage (lagbi), 

 though to obtain it the tree is destroyed ; 

 and even the hard and apparently useless 

 stones are ground into food for camels. 



Phoenix dactylifera. 



Finally, we may mention that the Date was 

 probably the Palm which supplied the 

 ' brandies of palm-trees' mentioned by St. 

 John (xii. 13) as having been carried by 

 the people who went to meet Christ on his 

 triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and from 

 which Palm-Sunday takes its name. 



P. sylvestris, called the Wild Date, is sup- 

 posed by some authors to be the parent of 

 the cultivated date. It is common all over 

 India, and, like the last, attains a consider- 

 able height. Large quantities of toddy or 

 palm-wine are obtained from it, but the 

 Asiatics, more skilful than the Africans, 

 obtain it by merely cutting off the young 

 flower-spike, by which means they do not 

 destroy the tree Date-sugar, so exten- 

 sively usee 1 in India, is made by simply boil- 

 ing the toddy. TA. S.J 



THCENOCOMA. A generic name pro- 

 posed by D. Don for the Helichrymm pro- 

 Uferum,'a,Cn\ie species which differs from 

 the others in the central florets of the 

 head being males only and not hermaphro- 

 dite. It is a rather showy everlasting, 

 with very small granular clustered leaves, 

 and large solitary terminal flower-heads, 

 having an involucre of many rows of 

 scales, the outer of which are short and 



appressed, and the inner long radiating 

 shiny and of a beautiful rose-purple colour. 

 The tubular five-toothed florets are seated 

 upon a naked receptacle. The pappus con- 

 sists of a single row of rough bristles, 

 those of the male club-shaped, and those 

 of the female variously cohering. [A. S ] 



PHOLIDIA. A genus of Mijoporacece, 

 containing two species from New Holland. 

 They are shrubs with entire leaves, and 

 flowers on very short solitary axillary pe- 

 duncles, The calyx is deeply five-cleft, 

 undergoing no change in fruiting," the co- 

 rolla is funnel-shaped, with an unequally 

 five-lobed spreading limb; there are four 

 didynamous included stamens, with cres- 

 cent-shaped anthers; and the ovary is ob- 

 long and four-ceiled, with a capitate emar- 

 ginate stigma. The drupe has a four- 

 celled and four-seeded stone. [W. C.J 



PHOLIDOTA. A tropical Asiatic genus 

 of orchids, the several species of which are 

 all epiphytes either with pseudobulbs or 

 fleshy jointed rhizomes, and having plicate 

 leaves, and terminal usually imbricated and 

 two-ranked drooping flower-spikes. Its 

 flowers have equal distinct sepals; smaller 

 petals ; a concave entire or three-lobed lip 

 parallel with the column, which is semi- 

 cylindrical or winged ; and a two-lipped 

 two or four-valved anther, containing four 

 distinct globose pollen-masses. [A. S.J 



PBTOLIOTA. A subgenus of Agaricus 

 belonging to the series with brown or 

 ferruginous spores, and characterised by 

 the presence of a distinct woven veil, form- 

 ing a ring on the stem. One or two are es- 

 culent, amongst which A, pudicus is much 

 esteemed in Italy. A. mutabilis is some- 

 times confounded with the German Stock- 

 schwamm, A. melleus, but it is not clear 

 that it is wholesome. [M. J. B.J 



rHORADENDB-ON. An extensive genus 

 of Lorantliacece, confined to the New World, 

 but extending from the United States to 

 Brazil. It has dioecious or monoecious 

 flowers : the males with a trifld perianth, 

 and transversely two-celled anthers open- 

 ing by pores or vertical slits (sometimes 

 one-celled ones by confluence) ; and the 

 females with a three-lobed perianth, and 

 sessile obtuse stigma. The numerous spe- 

 cies are parasitic usually leafy shrubs, and 

 have catkin-like jointed spikes of sessile 

 immersed flowers. One, which grows on 

 elms and hickories in the United States, is 

 known as the American Mistleto, [A. S.J 



PHORANTHIUM. The receptacle of 

 Composites. 



PHOPiMIUM. The four species which 

 have at different times been ascribed to 

 this genus of Liliacece are now combined 

 into one variable species, P. tenax, the New 

 Zealand Flax, which is confined to New 

 Zealand and Norfolk Island. This plant 

 forms large tufts, and has sword-shaped 

 leaves growing in opposite rows and clasp- 

 ing each other at the base ; those of one 

 variety being from five to six feet long, of 

 a bright green above and glaucous under- 



