14 



Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 



Sagus Iffivis, No. 4. RumpJi. Amb. /. p. 76. 

 Rambiya, Malay, 



This valuable Tree rises to the height of about twenty 

 feet, and is generally surrounded by numerous smaller and 

 younger plants which spring up around it after the manner 

 of the Plantain {Musa sapientum). The stem, which is about 

 as thick as that of the Cocoa-nut tree, is annulated by the 

 vestiges of the fallen leaves, and the upper part is common- 

 ly invested with their withered sheaths. The leaves resem- 

 ble those of the Cocoa, but grow more erect, and are much 

 more persistent, so that the foliage has not the same tufted 

 appearance, but has more of the graceful ascending curve 

 of that of the Saguerus Rumphii : they are pinnate, un- 

 armed; the leaflets linear, acute, carinate^ and smooth. The 

 tree is from fifteen to twenty years in coming to maturity, 

 the fructification then appears, and it soon after decays and 

 dies. The inflorescence is terminal ; several spadices rise 

 from the summit of the stem, inveloped in sheaths at their 

 joints, and alternately branched. It is on these branches 

 that the flowers and fruit are produced, and they are gene- 

 rally from five to eight inches in length. They are of a 

 brown colour, and closely imbricated with broad scariose 

 scales, within which is a quantity of dense ferruginous wool, 

 in which the minute flowers are imbedded and completely 

 concealed. Each scale supports two flowers, which are 

 hermaphrodite, and scarcely larger than a grain of turnip- 

 seed. The Perianth is six-leaved, of which three are in- 

 terior, the leaflets nearly equal. Stamina six; filaments 

 very short ; anthers oblong, two-celled. Ovaria three, con- 

 nected together in the middle, each monosporous. Style 

 none. Stigma small. Fruit single, nearly globular, somewhat 

 depressed at the summit, but with a short, acute, mucro or 

 point in the centre ; it is covered with scales which are im- 

 bricated from the top to the bottom^ and are shining, of a 

 greenish straw-colour, of a rhomboidal shape, and with a 



