MR. R. SPRUCE ON LEOPOLDINIA PIASSABA. 59 
of long widely-arched fronds, with the lower part of the rachis 
destitute of pinne for a length of nearly 5 feet, give to the Pias- 
saba an aspect sui generis, and render it one of the most striking 
and handsome of the noble family of palms. This beard is the 
membrane which envelopes the frond in its folded-up state, and 
which in most palms falls away entirely when the frond expands, 
or remains attached in fragments to the margin and apex of the 
pinne. The other species of Leopoldinia have the stem “ fibril- 
litio reticulato cireumtextus"— sheathed with the persistent peti- 
ole-bases, which do not terminate in а pendulous beard, as in Z. 
Piassaba. In tall specimens this net-work falls away, especially 
in L. major, Wallace*. 
It is plain in all Zeopoldinic that the sarcocarp of the fruit cor- 
responds to the sheathing base of the petiole, as it consists of the 
same interlacing woody or horny fibres, only on a smaller scale 
and more compact. The sarcocarp of L. Piassaba differs from 
that of the other species of Leopoldinia in having several inner 
layers of slender brown interlaced fibres, which correspond to the 
beard of the petiole. | 
As Martius had not seen his Leopoldinia in all stages of their 
growth, the delicate fugacious spathes escaped his notice, and he 
describes the genus as spatheless, whieh would be an anomaly 
among palms. In reality, all the species have two very thin fusi- 
form brown spathes, which fall away at an early stage, long before 
the flowers are fully formed. I have good specimens of those of 
L. minor, Mart. 
The ascertained distribution of the Piassaba palm is from the 
river Padauirí (a large tributary of the Rio Negro, entering on 
the left bank) on the south, to the cataracts of the Orinoco on 
the north ; and from near the Japurá on the west, to the sources 
of the Pacimoni on the east. Its place of growth is in low sandy 
flats, where the water stands to a slight depth in rainy weather, 
but it avoids the swamps and the gapós in which the Mauritias 
and Euterpes delight. It is mostly found far away from the 
banks of the rivers; and I have seen but a single plant in guch a 
locality, namely, just within the lower mouth of the Casiquiare, 
* L. major is а many-stemmed palm—I have counted as many as twenty- 
four staine fromm one root, and by this character alone it may be distinguished 
from the other species of the genus, all of which have solitary stems. Seedling 
plants often form wide strips on the edge of sandy islands of the Rio Negro. 
In this state I have mistaken them, at a distance, for a species of Pariana—a 
genus of grasses well known to have considerable affinity to the palms. 
babii. 
