Stem woody, usually simple. Leaves pinnately or palmately split, at least 2-cleft, usually collected in a crown at the top of the stem. Flowers in simple or branched spadices enveloped by spathes, usually unisexual and provided with rudimentary stamens or carpels. Perianth-segments 6, similar in texture, but often unequal in size, leathery or parchment-like, green, white or yellow. Stamens 6 or more, rarely 3, united at the base or adnate below to the perianth. Carpels 3, superior, distinct or united and then forming a 1-3-celled ovary; sometimes 2 carpels empty or reduced to the style. Ovules solitary in each cell, filling the cell and sometimes adhering to its wall. Fruits berry-or drupe-like. Seeds with a small embryo and horny albumen.--Genera 36, species 100. (Plates 10 and 11.) 1. Carpels 3, distinct. Fruit consisting of 1-3 smooth berries. Leaf-segments induplicate in bud. [Subfamily =CORYPHOIDEAE=.] 2 Carpels 3, united and forming a 1-3-celled ovary, or carpel 1. 3 2. Leaves fan-shaped. Spadices with 2 or more incomplete spathes. Flowers polygamous or dioecious. Perianth of the female flowers as in the male. Seed ovate, not deeply grooved; albumen ruminate. Stem short, usually branched.--Species 1 (_Ch. humilis_ L.). North-West Africa. Used as an ornamental plant; the leaf-buds are eaten and the fibres used for making ropes or paper or for stuffing cushions. “Dwarf-palm.” [Tribe SABALEAE.] =Chamaerops= L. Leaves pinnate. Spadices with one complete spathe. Flowers dioecious. Perianth of the female flowers differing from the male. Seed oblong, with a deep longitudinal groove.--Species 5. Some (especially the date-palm, _Ph. dactylifera_ L.) have edible fruits, also used for making brandy and sugar. They yield also palm-wine, wood, and fibres for plaiting and stuffing, and are used as ornamental plants. [Tribe PHOENICEAE.] =Phoenix= L. 3. Leaves fan-shaped. Spadices with many incomplete spathes. Fruit a drupe with 1-3 distinct stones; epicarp smooth or minutely dotted. [Subfamily =BORASSOIDEAE=, tribe BORASSEAE.] 4 Leaves pinnately dissected or 2-cleft. Fruit berry-like or covered with imbricate scales or containing a single stone; if fruit drupe-like and one-seeded, then spadices with 1-4 complete spathes. 8 [Illustration: CYPERACEAE. _FLOW. PL. AFR_. _Pl. 9._ J. Fleischmann del. Kyllinga alba Nees _A_ Plant in flower. _B_ Inflorescence. _C_ Flower (the ovary cut lengthwise).] [Illustration: PALMAE. _FLOW. PL. AFR._ _Pl. 10._ J. Fleischmann del. Raphia Laurentii De Wild. _A_ Young plant. _B_ Group of fruits. _C_ Fruit. _D_ Seed. (_A_ from De Wildeman, Expedition Laurent).] 4. Male flowers many in each pit of the spadix. 5 Male flowers solitary in each pit of the spadix. 6 5. Male flowers 20-30 in each pit of the spadix. Stamens about 30. Fruit nearly always with a single stone. Seeds deeply 2-lobed.--Species 1. Seychelles. The fruit (“double cocoa-nut”) is eaten and used in medicine. =Lodoicea= Labill.