28 
FETCH : 
no true spathe on the specimen. The whole structure 
resembled an elongated cylindrical bud, and was about 50 
inches in length, with a maximum diameter (at the base) of 
only an inch and a half. The main axis of the inflorescence 
bore sixteen ‘‘ leaves ” enclosed within one another. Each of 
these consisted of a bract-like structure, from 30 to 40 
inches long, usually furnished with a leafy tip. Their bases 
were somewhat inflated and resembled in texture the bracts 
of the previous inflorescence, but higher up they became 
thicker and more nearly resembled the tissue of a spathe. 
They thinned out on either side into incurved wings, which 
overlapped on the opposite side of the bud for the greater part 
of its length. Towards the apex, however, the wings ceased to 
meet, and that part of it was merely channeled. The longest 
leafy tip was 20 inches in length, but only one inch in 
breadth ; it was simple, not pinnate. The majority of the 
bracts bore similar tips, but in few cases they were wanting. 
The main axis of the inflorescence terminated in a small simple 
leaf about a foot in length. 
There was no sign of any flowering branch in the axils of 
these reduced leaves. The phenomenon might, perhaps, be 
classed as a case of chloranthy were it not for the evidence of 
other inflorescences from the same tree. 
Examination of a second, older, expanded specimen gave 
the following details. The main axis of the inflorescence bore 
thin bract-like structures, twenty in all, similar to those of 
the Minuwangoda tree. These were inflated at the base and 
strongly transversely wrinkled, and measured up to 4 inches 
in breadth at the base and 8 inches in length. But each 
bract terminated in a fairly well-developed pinnate leafy tip 
up to 5 inches in length. The main axis bore at the apex 
four small normally pinnate leaves up to 24 inches in length, 
and furnished with sheaths at the base of the leaf stalk. In 
this example each bract bore an aborted spathe in its axil ; 
these were up to 6 inches in length, and differed from the 
structures found in the corresponding position in the inflores- “ 
cence of the Minuwangoda tree in being completely closed 
and therefore hollow. There can be no doubt that these 
represent aborted spathes. 
