Wallichia
(named after Dr. Nathaniel Wallich, 1786-1854, a Danish botanist, and author of several valuable works on Indian plants). SYNS. Harina, Wrightia (of Roxburgh). ORD. Palmae. A small genus (two or three species) of East Indian, dwarf, tufted, stove Palms. Flowers yellowish, mediocre, monoecious or rarely polygamous, bracteate and bibracteolate; spathes very numerous, slenderly coriaceous, the lower ones narrower, tubular, the upper ones boat-shaped, complete, imbricated; spadices shortly pedunculate, the males drooping or decurved, ovoid, much-branched, dense-flowered, the females looser, erect. Fruit reddish or purple, ovoid-oblong, one or rarely two-celled and seeded. Leaves densely fascicled, in one species terminal and distichous, furfuraceous, unequally pinnatisect; segments solitary or the lower ones fascicled, cuneate at base, oblong, obovate, or oblanceolate, erose-toothed, the terminal one cuneate; petioles slender, laterally compressed; sheaths short, cut at the margins and furnished with long hairs. The species require to be grown in a strong, rich soil. Propagation may be effected by seeds, when procurable; or by gradually separating the suckers, so as to allow them to make sufficient root before they are quite detached. W. caryotoides (Caryota-like).* fl., males yellowish-white, covering the spadix branches; females few, amongst the males near the bases of the branches. July. fr. ovate-oblong, the size of a nutmeg. l. few, alternate, petiolate, 3ft. to 8ft. long; leaflets sessile, 1ft. to 1 1/4ft. long, the lower ones in opposite fascicles, the upper ones mostly solitary and alternate, all wedge-shaped, praemorse at apex, deep shining green above, whitish beneath. India, 1825. See Fig. 210.
W. densiflora (dense-flowered). fl., male spadices enveloped in large, imbricated spathes, of a dark purple, streaked with yellow; these separate, and then a dense cluster of nearly white female spadices, with violet-coloured ovaries, appears. l., lower pinnae binately fascicled, whitish below, the rest solitary, sinuate-lobed or toothed. Plant stemless. h. 12ft. Assam, 1840. (B. M. 4584.)