608 
BECCAEI. 
conspicuous, with a broadly conical ovoid base, suddenly narrowing into 
a filiform style, which attains the length of the longest anthers and is 
not thickened at its top. Female flowers opening after the fall of the male 
ones, globose-conical, acute, about 6 mm long, when the males are full 
grown ; sepals strongly imbricate, concave, suborbicular ; petals very 
broad, imbricate in their basal part, suddenly contracted into a very short, 
triangular, valvate point. Ovary 1-eelled, 1-ovulate, ovoid, with a tri- 
gonous acute apex, this being formed by 3 trigonous connivent stigmas 
(while still enclosed in the bud) ; ovule suspended laterally in the small 
basilar cell; staminodes 6, very small and short, with rudimentary 
anthers, and forming by their united bases a small 6-toothed hypogynous 
cup. Fruiting perian th accrescent, cupular, 10 mm high, 15 mm across 
at the month, covering the lower third of the fruit; the petals consid- 
erably larger and longer than the sepals, with more or less crenulate 
margins. Fruit (when quite ripe) bright-red, 3 cm long, 18 nun broad, 
elliptic-ovoid or slightly ovoid, suddenly contracted into a short stout 
beak, upon which rest the remains of the black, short, trigonous, connivent 
stigmas; pericarp slightly fleshy, on the whole about 1 mm thick when 
dry; epicarp very thinly crustaceous, very minutely shagreened when 
seen under a strong lens; mesocarp with a few layers of rigid, slightly 
anastomosing, slender, unequal fibres, of which some in the outer layer 
are flattened and 0.5 to 1 mm broad; enclocarp thin, crustaceous or 
subpergamentaceous, polished inside, usually more or less adherent to 
the testa of the seed. Seed erect, ovoid, terete, rounded at both ends, 
16 to 17 mm long, 13 mm broad, free in the cavity of the endocarp, to 
which however the greater part of its pellicular testa is adherent, its 
surface dull ; hilum narrow, extending from the base to the top of the 
seed ; the branches of the raphe are numerous, very distinct and impressed, 
chiefly descending from the top, much branched and forming a close 
network all around the entire seed. Albumen bony, usually with a 
small cavity in the center, deeply and closely ruminated, embryo exactly 
basilar. 
Commonly cultivated as an ornamental tree in Manila and locally known as 
“Bunga de Jolo” and “Bunga de China” (The Jolo or Chinese Areca) . The 
original home of the species is doubtful, and it may not be a native of the 
Philippines. Mr. Merrill, who has supplied me with specimens, informs me that 
old residents of Manila state that it was introduced from Jolo, one of the islands 
of the Sulu Archipelago ; however, it has not been collected in a wild state 
anywhere in the Philippines. Mr. Merrill surmises that this may be the “Areca 
palm bearing large clusters of scarlet fruit” mentioned by Burbidge 1 as occurring 
on the “Hill of Tears,” Island of Jolo, above an altitude of 1,500 m. 
The nuts of Normanbya Merrillii are a good substitute for those of Areca 
catechu, and are somewhat used by the natives for chewing with lime and the 
leaves of Piper betle. 
The nearest ally of this palm, amongst those known to me, appears to be 
‘The Gardens of the Sun (1880) 21.3. 
