FLORA OF ADEN. 
849 
rarely 7 ; filaments subulate from a thickened base ; anthers linear, 
slightly sagittate, nearly basifixed. -^Female spadix like the male ; 
bracteoles densely imbricate, with a transverse line of tomentum half- 
way up the back. Flowers very shortly pedicellate. Calyx-lobes 
orbicular-ovate, light green. Petals smaller than the sepals, orbicular- 
ovate, concave. Staminodes 6. Ovary globose or 3-lobed ; stigmas 
sessile or nearly so. 
Fruit more or less obliquely ovoid or oblong, irregular, usually a little 
more constricted in the upper part than in the middle and lower part, 
always much longer than broad, 2|-3i inches long and 24-2 J inches 
broad, more or less obtusely triangular in transverse section, with the 
abortive carpels often much developed ; surface rather irregular and 
usually very distinctly punctate-impressed. Sarcocarp rather strongly 
impregnated with sugar ; wall of endocarp *^2 “a inch thick on one side, 
on the other (which corresponds to an obtuse longitudinal keel) -J-i inch, 
not thicker below than on the sides and not incurved at the apex of the 
seed. Seed more or less ovate-conical, and flattened at the base, more or 
less pyriform, If- If inches long, 1 T V"1£ inches broad. 
Locality : — Shaikh Othman (I)efh). 
Distribution : — Along the Nile-valley in Middle and Upper Egypt. 
Uses : — The leaves of younger plants are eaten by camels. The old 
leaves are put to many minor uses. The trunk is used for making water 
conduits, and it is possible that it might contain a little sago in just the 
same measure as the common Indian fan palm, enough to make it a 
famine food. The thick fleshy-fibrous part of the fruit resembles ginger- 
bread both in colour and taste, hence the palm is often known as the 
Gingerbread tree. The chief use of the palm is for the manufacture of 
buttons from the hard inner fruit- wall. It is also turned into beads for 
rosaries. 
The following species, probably introduced has been observed by 
Defiers at Shaikh Ofchman. We have seen a few specimens cultivated in 
the town of Aden. 
PlioeniX dactylifera Linn. Hort. Cliff. 482 ; Spec. PI. ed. Willd. 
IV, 730. The Date Palm. 
Description ; — A tall tree ; trunk covered with the persistent bases 
of the petioles, the foot often surrounded by a dense mass of root 
suckers. Leaves grey, pinnae 8-16 inches long, regularly distichous, 
forming a very acute angle with the petiole, often approximate in twos 
or threes on the same side of the petiole ; petiole grey, laterally compress- 
ed, almost flat. 
