200 
SAGO. 
the next branch, and decreases to its top. The upper patt of 
the branch is called gabba gabba and is about the thickness 
of the arm at its top and much thicker below. 
As long as the stem is immature the thorny branches at the 
bottom protect it from the wild bogs who would otherwise 
batten on the meal. It gives no fruit until all its strength is 
expended and its death approaches, and when the branches 
are screwed with meal, at which time small fruits like round 
pigeons e^gs shew themselves in great number at its top, like 
a crown. These are green and when ripe sour, and they 
finally become yellow.* 
* Oud en N. O. I. Thu appears to be Metroxylon Sago, or Sigm Konigi * 
The following botanical description by Dr W. Jack, of one of the Sumatra and 
Malacca species, Sagas loevis, of which the accuracy is confirmed by Dr Gr iffith 
who adopts it in bis paper on the Palms of British East India, appeared in 
the Malayan MiscellaEies published at Bencooleu 
This valuable Tree rises to the height of about twenty feet, and is general¬ 
ly surrounded by numerous smaller and younger plants which spring up 
around it after the manner of the Plantain (Mvsa sopientum). Tbe stem, 
which ia about as thick as that of tbe Cocoannt tree, is annulated by the 
vesligeB of the fallen leaves, and the upper part is commonly invested with 
» their withered sheaths. The leaves resemble those of the Cocoa, but grow 
more erect, and are much more persistent, so that the foliage has not tbe same 
tufted appearance, but has more of the graceful ascending curve of that of the 
Sayuerus Rumphii: they are pinnate, unarmed; the leaflets linear, acute, 
carinate, and smooth, The tree is from fifteen to twenty years in coming 
to maturity, the fructification then appeal b, and it soon after decays 
and dies. The inflorescence' ia terminal; several spadices rise from the sum¬ 
mit of the stem, enveloped in sheaths at their joints, and alternately branched. 
It is on these branches that the flowers and frail are produced, and they are 
generally from five to eight inches in length. They are of a brown colour, and 
closely imbricated with broad ecariose scales, within which is a quantity of 
dense ferruginous wool, in which the minute flowers are imbedded and com¬ 
pletely concealed, Each scale supports two flowers, which are hermaphrodite, 
and scurcely lurger than a grain of turnip-seed. The Perianth is six-leaved, 
of which three are interior, the leaflets nearly equal. Stamina fllaments 
very short; anthers oblong, two-celled. Ovaria three, connected together ii 
the middle, each monosporous. Style none. Stigma small. Fruit single, 
nearly globular, somewhat depressed at the summit, but with a stmrfc, acute, 
mucro or point in the centre ; it is covered with scales which are imbricated 
from the top to the bottom, and are shining, of a greenish straw-cotour, of a 
rhomboidal shape, and with a longitudinal furrow down their middle. Below 
the scales, the rind is of a spongy consistence, and the fruit contains a single 
seed, of rather an irregular shape, and having the umbilicus situated laterally 
a little above the baBe of the fruit. Thi progress of the fruit to maturity is very 
slow; and is said, according to the best information I can obtain, to occu¬ 
py about three veavs from the first appearing of the spadices to the final ripen¬ 
ing of the fruit. During the period of inflorescence, the branches of the spadix 
are brown, and apparently quite bare. Afterwards a number of small grern 
knobs appear above the brown scales, which go on enlarging, till they at length 
acquire the size of a small apple. Bat few fruit come to maturity on each 
branch. 
Ia habit and character this tree recedes considerably from the true Palma, 
