DB. E. SPRTTCE ON EQUATOBIAL-AMEBICAJS' PALMS. 97 



supplant the original form ; so that we now find in Geonoma an 

 effete ovary in the male flowers, a castrated stamen-tube in the 



female flowers 



remnants 



bothi 



same flower. 



Some Eastern palms, especially among the Spathelliflora?, are 

 said to have at this day truly hermaphrodite flowers. Among 

 American pahns one finds in some species an occasional bisexual 

 flower with all the organs perfect ; but it is a case of extreme 

 rarity. Even in Mauritia, where stamens are certainly present 

 in the fertile flower, they have always seemed to me emasculated. 



Kote 1. In the foregoing Introduction, and in the descriptions which follow, 

 it will be remarked that I speak always of the '* leaves " of palms ; for *' fronds *' 

 they certainly are not, In the proper sense of that term, as applied to Ferns, to 

 some Ilepaticie, &c. 



In describing the mode of division of the leaves I have distinguished (with 

 Martins) ''pinnately cut " from " pinnate," as follows: 



Piiiiiatisecta^ when a leaf is pinnately cloven down to the very rhachis in few 

 divisions, usually only three on a side, which are almost or quite as broad 

 at the base as at midway, and are inserted on a line parallel to the axis of 

 the leaf {verticalld), 



Piiinata, when there are numerous distinct leaflets which are narrowed at the 

 base from being folded back on their own midrib {rcduplicatd)^ and are ob- 

 liquely inserted on the rhachis {semiverticalla). 



Note 2. For the species already described I have invariably adopted the most 

 ancient name, and assigned it to its true author. The right of the author who 

 has first named a species, and either intelligibly described it or published intel- 

 ligible specimens of it, to have his name cited along with its name seems so in- 

 defeasible, that no number of botanical congresses, nor the practice of any indi- 

 vidual botanist, however eminent, can do away with it. So far as my own 

 names are concerned, I feel tolerably indifferent about their fate — ^the ownership 

 of a mere name is a possession of so very Uttle value ; but when I have seen (in 

 a late volume of the ' Prodromus *) a writer not only ignoring that I had ever 

 baptized any of the plants I had risked my life to gather, and coolly appropria- 

 ting my names as his own, but also (in other cases) c all 'mj mt/ foundlings b?/ 

 tcgly names, and giving them bad characters, I confess to have felt a little of that 

 indignation which a parent might legitimately give way to when told that his 

 cherished offspring liad been similarly ill-treated. 



Note 3. The dimensions are given in French feet and inches, except where 

 otherwise specified ; and the miles spoken of are geographical. 



LINN. PROC. BOTANY, TOIi. XI, H 



