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Rhapis (From rhapis a needle alluding)

(from rhapis, a needle; alluding to the needle-like segments of the leaves). ORD. Palmae. A genus comprising four or five species of low, Chinese and Japanese, greenhouse Palms, with long, densely-tufted, reed-like, leafy caudices. Flowers yellowish; spathes two or three, incomplete, membranous; spadices shorter than the leaves, borne on slender peduncles, the branches spreading. Fruit consisting of one to three small, obovoid, one-seeded crpels. Leaves alternate and terminal, sub-membranous, connate or semi-orbicular, deeply cut into three to many segments, which are linear, cuneate, or elliptic, truncate, entire, toothed, or cut, three to many-nerved; petioles slender, biconvex, with smooth or serrulated margins; sheaths split into a fibrous network. Several of the species have been introduced, for culture of which see Chamaerops.

R. aspera (rough). A synonym of R. flabelliformis.

R. cochinchinensis (Cochin China). fl., spadix short, branched. fr. ovate, not edible. l. fan-shaped, palmately divided; segments oblong, obtuse, much plaited; petioles short, straight, prickly. Caudex 8ft. high. Cochin China. R. flabelliformis (fan-leaved).* Ground Rattan Cane. fl., males yellowish, sessile, thickly covering the spikelets; spadix sparse paniculate-branched, 4in. to 5in. long. l. petioled, five to seven parted; segments sub-plicate, ciliate-spinulose along the edges and keel of the plaits, indented-erose at the end; petioles round-ancipital, named, very obscurely denticulate. Stem about 1 1/2ft. high, as thick as the thumb, sheathed by the reticulated, persistent bases of the leaves. China and Japan, 1774. (B. M. 1374.) SYN. R. aspera.

R. f. foliis-variegatis (variegated-leaved). A form in which the leaf-segments are more or less freely striped with white. Japan, 1861. R. humilis (low-growing). l. cut into from seven to ten spreading segments; petioles unarmed. Similar in general aspect to R. flabelliformis. Japan. SYN. R. Sirotsik (of gardens).

R. Sirotsik (Sirotsik). A garden synonym of R. humilis.