1 Sepr., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 233 
2lines long; stamens more than 20, filaments very short; anthers not exserted. 
Ovary 1-celled, white, oblong; style long as the ovary, together not exceeding 
the stamens, both glabrous; stigma capitate. The smaller flower-buds in the 
same notch with those above described may be female, but I did not examine 
them when fresh, and cannot be sure of this from the dried buds. My impression 
when examining the fresh flowers was that they were truly hermaphrodite; and 
if such should prove to be the case, then this plant must be placed in another 
genus. No ripe orimmature fruit was obtainable. This is probably the plant 
mentioned by Dr. Robert Brown in Prodr. as Seaforthia elegans. vee 
. Hab. : Polo Creek, Somerset. June, 1897. : 
pagel CARYOTA, Linn. bk 
€. Rumphiana, var. Alberti. A tall, stout, glabrous, bipinnate palm. 
Leaves 16 to 18 ft. long, and 10 to 14 ft. broad. Leat-sezments very oblique, 
half fan-shaped, much plicate, 6 to 12 in. long, thick, coriaceous, irregularly and 
usually toothed, sometimes more or less pointed, the lower point often produced 
into a long obtuse point, sometimes shorter than the next fold. Peduncles very 
stout, bearing a vast number of long—all about of equal length, say 8 to 4 ft.— 
thong-like spikes of monoecious flowers, 2 males with a female between them ; 
3 outer segments of male perianth, imbricate, rotund, ciliate, 2 lines diameter ; 
3 inner segments valvate, 6 lines long, very hard; stamens numerous. Fruit 
globular, exceeding 1 in. diameter; white until quite ripe, when it becomes a 
deep purple. 
Hab. : Somerset, Cape York Peninsula. 
BORASSUS, Linn. | 
Diccious, the spadices very large, simply branched ; peduncle sheathe 
with open spathes; males with stout cylindric branches that are densely clothed 
with closely imbricating bracts, enclosing spikelets of flowers which hence 
appear as if sunk in cavities of the branch ; female spadix sparingly branched, 
aring few scattered solitary flowers. Male flowers small, mixed with scaly 
bracts, secund in two series in a small spikelet, and protruding one by one from 
the cavities of the branch of the spadix, as the rhachis of the spikelet elongates; 
perianth glumaceous; sepals 3, narrowly cuneate, tip inflexed truncate, imbri- 
cate; petals shorter than the sepals, obovate-spathulate, imbricate ; stamens 6, 
anthers subsessile, large, oblong; pistillodes of 3 bristles. female flowers 
larger, globose; perianth fleshy, greatly accrescent; sepals reniform, imbricate; 
petals smaller, convolute; staminodes 6 to 9; ovary globose, subtrigonous, 
entire or 3 or 4-partite, 8 or 4-celled;. stigmas 3, sessile recurved; ovules 
basilar, erect. Fruit a large subglobose drupe with 1 to 3-obcordate fibrous 
pyrenes ; pericarp thinly fleshy ; stigmas terminal. Seeds oblong, top 3-lobed ; 
testa adherent to the pyrene ; albumen equable hollow; embryo subapical, A 
very tall palm; trunk stout, unarmed. Leaves terminal, fan-shaped, plicately 
multifid ; petiole spinous, ligula short.—Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. 481. 
B. flabellifer, Zinn. ‘Palmyra Palm.’ Trunk 60 to 70 ft., very rarely 
ranching, often swollen above the middle. Leaves 6 to 10 ft. diameter, palm- 
ately fan-shaped, rigidly coriaceous; segments 2 to 4 ft., linear, 2-fid-margins 
spinulose. Spadix male and female several feet long and very stout. Male 
flowers small; female 1 in. diam. Drupe broadly obovoid, brown, 8 in. 
diameter.— Hook. l.c. 
Hab. : Cape York Peninsula. For the Australian habitat of this noble ple I am entirely 
dependent upon Mr. Frank L. Jardine, who has a male tree growing near his house at Somerset, 
which he tells me he brought when it was quite young from a locality upon the Peninsula forty 
miles from the coast. He says there was quite a clump. of the palms, some having very thick 
stems, but the one he brought away with him was the only young plant he saw. At the present 
time the tree stands between 20 and 30 ft. high; and from the nutnerous forked spikes of old 
inflorescence scattered upon the ground around the tree, it must flower freely. “ The petioles of 
the leaves of this tree are. broad, pale-coloured, and the marginal prickles scanty and small. The 
home of this grand palm is generally considered to be Tropical Africa, although it has been long 
cultivated in India, where its leaves are used for writing on and for basketwork, umbrellas, &e. 
The outer wood is hard, heavy, and durable, and weighs from 60 to 70 lb. per cubic’ foot.) The 
pulp of the fruit is eaten, and.the' sap is fermented into toddy or made into sugar. TOFS 
