79 



In Nipa ftutica?is (the only species) the pinnate leaves resemble 

 those of the cocoa-nut palm and attain a length of 15 to 20 feet. 

 The fruit is one-seeded (and not three-see4ed, as in the cocoa-nut 

 palm), and it is aggregated in heads as large as that of a man. 

 There are 30 to 50 single fruits in one head, altered according as 

 they are fertilized or non-fertilized and according to their position in 

 the head. [At the reading of the paper a head of Nipa obtained 

 direct from the tropics was exhibited and the several parts 

 explained and compared with the fossil palm.] The single seed 

 germinates within the fruit, which falls into the sea and is carried 

 away, but it is detached from the head only after a long period, 

 when the germination of the seed is so far advanced that the salt 

 water cannot injure the embryo. The foliage of the Nipa is used 

 in the tropics as thatch, and when burnt yields a supply of salt. 

 From the toddy yielded by the spadix, sugar, vinegar, yeast, and a 

 strong spirit are obtained. According to the " Dictionary of 

 Indian Terms," p. 479, " the slang word Nip for a small dram of 

 spirits is adopted from the Nipa palm." The white kernel of the 

 fruit, as in the case of the cocoa-nut, is edible. 



The Nipa palm is found on the swampy shores and estuaries in 

 India and the Moluccas. Sir Joseph Hooker in his " Himalayan 

 Journals " refers to the " low vegetation which covers the Sunder- 

 bunds (in the delta of the Ganges) growing in brackish swamps 

 chiefly made up of a dwarf-palm and small mangroves. ...» 

 Every now and then the paddles of the steamer tossed up the large 

 fruits of Nipa fruticans, a low, stemless palm that grows in the tidal 

 waters of the Indian Ocean and bears a large head of nuts. It is a 

 plant of no interest to the common observer, but of much to the 

 geologist, from the nuts of a similar plant abounding in the 

 Tertiary formations at the mouth of the Thames having floated 

 about there in as great profusion as here, till buried deep in the 

 silt and mud that now form the island of Sheppey." 



Returning to the fossil Nipadites, Bowerbank originally 

 described thirteen species, but, as pointed out by Rendle, sub- 

 sequent workers have shown, and Bowerbank himself seems to 

 have realised, that he had made too many species founded on too 

 slight differences which may be individual variations or the result of 

 the degree of maturity of the fruit or its position in the capitulum. 

 This may be readily understood from an examination of the fruits 

 of the modern Nipa fruticans, which are densely packed in a 

 spherical head. There seems to be no reason to doubt that the 

 fossil fruits were borne in a similar way as a corresponding variety 

 in shape and size is evident in one and the same species. 



In a ' Revision of the genus Nipadiies, Bowerb.,' by Dr. A. B. 

 Rendle, f.r.s. (Journ. Linn. Soc, xxx, 143, pi. vi, vii), it is stated 

 that "the conditions under which the fossil fruits are found show 

 that like their modern representatives, the palms grew in the rich 

 brackish mud of the shore or river mouth. Associated with the 

 Sheppey fruits are the remains of crabs, freshwater turtles and a 

 great variety of fruits and seeds, with some stems and branches ; 

 such a collection of marine and freshwater organisms as is 



