Order LXXXIV. PALMÆ.
Woody plants, usually with an erect stem bearing a terminal crown of large pinnate or fan-shaped leaves, rarely climbing or decumbent. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, small, numerous, arranged in spikes or panicles called spadices, which are enclosed when young within a large and broad deciduous bract called a spathe. Perianth inferior, coriaceous, persistent, of 6 segments in 2 series; the outer imbricate, often united into a 3-toothed or -lobed cup; the inner usually valvate. Stamens generally 6 or 3, rarely more, inserted at the base of che perianth; filaments free or connate, subulate or filiform; anthers versatile. Ovary superior, 1- or 3-celled, or of 3 distinct carpels; style very short or wanting; stigmas 3, sessile; ovules solitary (rarely 2) in each cell. Fruit a drupe or berry; exocarp thick, spongy, fleshy, or fibrous; endocarp membranous or crustaceous or bony. Seed with copious horny cartilaginous or oily albumen; embryo small, in a cavity near the surface of the albumen.
A majestic order, comprising nearly 130 genera and about 1100 species, almost wholly confined to tropical or warm extratropical regions, a few only found in northern or southern temperate latitudes. Pew families are more generally useful, or applied to a greater variety of purposes. The timber, the foliage, the fruit, the starchy pith, and the fermentable sap are all employed. The cocoanut, date, sago-palm, cabbage-palm, betel-palm, African oil-palm, &c., are some of the best known species. The single genus found in New Zealand also occurs in Norfolk Island.
Stem tall, erect, marked with annulate scars. Leaves in a terminal crown, pinnately divided; segments numerous, equidistant, narrow-ensiform, acuminate, midrib stout, margins recurved towards the base. Inflorescence at the base of the leaves, of a much and densely branched spadix enclosed within two boat-shaped spathes. Flowers monœcious, the males and females on the same spadix, densely crowded, sessile, usually in threes, a female in the centre with a male on each side of it. Male flowers: Sepals subulate-lanceolate. Petals rather larger, obliquely ovate, acuminate, valvate. Stamens 6; filaments subulate, inflexed at the tips; anthers linear-oblong, dorsifixed, versatile. Rudimentary ovary columnar. Female flowers: Smaller and broader than the males, almost globose. Sepals rounded, concave, imbricating. Petals smaller. Ovary ovoid, 1-celled; stigma sessile, 3-fid; ovule parietal. Drupe ellipsoid or nearly globose; exocarp fleshy and succulent; endocarp fibrous within. Seed erect; albumen smooth, not ruminated; embryo basilar.
A genus consisting of the two following species, confined to New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and the Kermadec Islands.
| Trunk rather slender, 10–30 ft. Drupe oblong | 1. R. sapida. |
| Trunk stout, 20–50 ft. Drupe globose | 2. R. Baueri. |
