613
Fig. 108.
So!yus Rum'phii, Willd. L.— The Malay or Rumphius 's Sago-Palm.
Sagus farinifera, G<ertn.
Sex. Syst. Moncecia, Hexandria.
(Sago; Faecula caudicis. Sago ; Medullae faecula, Lond.)
History.— Sago is not mentioned by the ancient Greeks and Homans.® ni - Lopez {Hist, dell' Ind. Orient. Ven. 1578) is the first author inhose works I have found a notice of it. By the earlier writers it wasv anously called zagu, sagu, and saga (C. Bauhin, Pinax ). In Java the' v .°rd Saga signifies bread (Sir F. Drake, in Hakluyt’s Princip. Naviga-l °ns, Voyages, &c. vol. iii. p. 742).
Botany. Gen. Char. — Spathes many. Spadix (terminal) super-1 '(compound. Male: Calyx three-toothed. Corolla three-parted. Sta-r ! llna inserted on the base of the corolla. Female: Calyx and Corolla ashi the male. Stamina abortive. Style three-parted. Berry backwardly
imbricated with cartilaginous scales.Seed solitary. Embryo lateral. {Rox-burgh.)
Sp. Char. —Arboreous, armed, withstrong straight spines. Leaves pinnate.{Roxburgh.)
The stature of this tree seldom exceedsthirty feet. Before maturity, and pre-vious to the formation of the fruit, thestem consists of a thin hard wall, abouttwo inches thick, and of an enormousvolume of tissue (commonly termed themedulla or pith), from which the farina,called sago, is obtained. As the fruitforms, the farinaceous medulla disap-pears, and when the tree attains fullmaturity, the stem is no more than ahollow shell. The utmost age of thetree does not exceed thirty years.
Hab .— Peninsula of Malacca and theMalay Islands. It is an inhabitant oflow marshy situations.
Sagus Rumphii.
The tree.
°< The shrub.c » bruit-beamin' spadix.d > B'pe fruit.
Sa’gus lee'vis, Humph.— The Unarmed Sago-Palm.
S. iaevis, Jack, in Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 266; S. inermis, Boil).
(Sago; Faecula caudicis, OJic.)
^°tany. Gen. Char. —Vide supra.
0 f ./’• Char .— Arboreous, unarmed. Embryo lodged in or near the apexc seed. Leaves pinnate. {Roxburgh.)
s Po B ‘ ~~ Sumatra , Borneo , and the islands between them. GrowsNtaneously in low swampy lands.