. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society . he stamens. Femaleflowers ovoid, sepals broad, obtuse, imbricate ; petals longer, con-volute: staminodes 6, minute; ovary ovate, three-celled, one-ovuled;style almost wanting ; stigmas 3, triangular. Fruit bright chocolatecoloured, when ripe ovate-globose, rather compressed, -J-f inch indiameter, surrounded at the base by the perianth bearing the stigmatanear the base. Seed subglobose, brown, with a rather deepcomplete furrow, and several other shorter ones. Testa obscurelychestnut-coloured, with veins arising from the groove near theembryo, an
. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society . he stamens. Femaleflowers ovoid, sepals broad, obtuse, imbricate ; petals longer, con-volute: staminodes 6, minute; ovary ovate, three-celled, one-ovuled;style almost wanting ; stigmas 3, triangular. Fruit bright chocolatecoloured, when ripe ovate-globose, rather compressed, -J-f inch indiameter, surrounded at the base by the perianth bearing the stigmatanear the base. Seed subglobose, brown, with a rather deepcomplete furrow, and several other shorter ones. Testa obscurelychestnut-coloured, with veins arising from the groove near theembryo, and converging towards the base on the opposite solid, hornj^. Embryo basilar, conical, nearly one line long. Habitat.—Travancore, 2,500-6,000 feet on precipitous cliffs,local, but very common within its restricted areas. Flowers.—In June: fruit ripens 8-9 months : Plate LV.—The slender thin-stemmed palm,photographed by Mr. Macmillan, grows in the Botanic Garden of JouBN, Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Plate Bentinckia nicobarica, Becc. THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 463 Perandeniya. In the lower part of the stem the rings are notvisible owing to a thick crust of lichens. BENTINCKIA NICOBARICA, Becc. lUustraz. di ale. Palme viv. nelGiard. di Buitenz. 165. Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI, 418 ; Brandis Ind. Trees,647.—Orania nicobarica, Kurz in Journ. Bot. IV, p. 331, t. 171, f. 19-25. Description.—Trunk tall, 60-70 feet high, 9 inches in diameter,annulate. Leaves 5-8 feet; leaflets ^-2 feet, sessile, linear, cria-ceous, tip obtusely 2-lobed; petiole short; rhachis glabrous. Spadix l|^-2 feet long, decompoiuad, glabrous, branches andbranchlets inserted in woolly grooves of the rhachis; bracteolesdensely villous within. Female flowers: sepals and petals subsimilar,broadly ovate, obtuse, shining. Fruits tristichously arranged, globose, 1 inch long, ovoid-oblong, ventrally flat, dorsally convex, rugosely ribbed;albumen equable
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Keywords: ., booka, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalhistory
