NOTES ON PHILIPPINE PALMS, II. 
613 
Stem short and thick, 2 m high at most, and about 30 cm in diameter. 
Leaves very large, as much as 5 m in length, very similar to those of . I . 
Arnbong ; the leaflets are numerous, alternately subequi distant, in the 
intermediate portion of the rachis they are 5 to 7 cm apart, and have a 
conspicuous axillary callus at their insertion ; they are firmly papyra- 
ceous, green above, paler underneath and whitish, especially when young; 
the mid-costa is inconspicuously dotted with very minute, orbicular, brown 
scales; their general form is very irregularly elongate-lanceolate, but the 
outline is more or less deeply broken by 4- to 6 superimposed indentations 
and their corresponding lobes, they are more or less cuneately narrowed 
below to an acute base, which is often shortly auricled on the lower 
margin; usually the leaflets are also somewhat narrowed above to an 
obtuse or broadly rounded, or even bilobed apex; the margins of the 
lobes are irregularly and sharply dentate-serrate; the terminal leaflet is 
cuneately flabellate and deeply bilobed, the others (in full grown plants) 
are 55 to 70 cm long, and 4 to 7 cm wide in correspondence with the 
indentations, and 7 to 12 cm in their broadest parts. Spadices with, 
several simple flowering branches, these at the time they are loaded with 
fruits are subterete, 12 to 14 mm in diameter, glabrous and with a 
polished surface in the spaces between the fruits. Male flowers in bud, 
when full grown, are subclavate-obl.ong, 17 to 18 mm long; the calyx 
•shortly cupular, slightly narrowed at the mouth ; the sepals broader than 
high and with a split-crenulate margin, more or less gibbous at the base ; 
petals oblong and boat-shaped, acute but not apieulate; stamens very 
numerous ( 150 or more at times) ; anthers very narrow, subulate, aristate ; 
the scars left by the fallen flowers bear the punctiform marks of 30 to 
40 fibro-vascular bundles. The two special bracts of each female flower, 
after the fall of the fruit, are arched, crescent-shaped, entire and forming 
a very shallow cup, but with their margins not or only slightly overlap- 
ping each other. Fruiting perianth 27 mm broad ; the sepals transversely 
elongate-reniform, similar to the floral bracts, but with split-crenulate 
margins, 12 to 13 mm broad, 5 mm high; the petals coriaceous, concave, 
deltoid, 15 mm long and about as broad. Fruits globose-oblong, equally 
rounded at both ends, 3.5 cm long, 3 cm broad, not very distinctly 
tricostulate on the top, and with a small trigonous cleft in the center of 
this. Seeds elongate-elliptic, 25 to 26 mm long, 17 mm broad, sub- 
trigonous, convex on the back, and with an obtuse salient angle on the 
axial side, blunt at both ends. 
Apparently widely distributed in the Philippines. Luzon, Province of Tayabas, 
For. Bur. 10213, 10280 Curran, local name caong. Cebu, Bur. Sci. 1731 McGregor. 
Palawan, ridge slope 2 miles northwest of Irauan, altitude 200 m, For. Bur. 351/2 
Curran, January, 1906; Mount Victoria, Bur. Sci. 735 Foxworthy, March, 1906, 
altitude 250 m, local name Ubud. Balabac, Merrill 5372, October, 1906. A source 
of sago, the buds also used for food (Curran). The wild people of Palawan, the 
Tagbanuas, use the pith from the petioles for plugs on the ends of their arrows, 
to make them fit tightly into their blowguns (Merrill). 
