Geonoma.'] . equatoeial-amekica^s' palms. 99 



of from 6 to 10 feet, very rarely overpassing 15 feet, their thickness 

 being that of an ordinary walking-cane, or sometimes no greater 

 than that of a swan's quill; and their smooth polished straw-co- 

 loured cuticle is marked with closely set rings (from | an inch to 

 4 inches apart). A few species are stemless : and their number is 

 perhaps fewer than is supposed ; for I have never gathered any 

 species which does not in its adult state rise above the ground 

 with a distinct caudex. The stems vary in leafiness even in the 

 same species. Characters draw^n from the stems being either 

 leafy throughout or else only at the apex, and from the position 

 of the spadices, viz. arising from among the leaves or else below 

 the leaves, are utterly fallacious ; for they indicate in most cases 

 merely the age of the individual, and not any specific difference. 

 Young plants grow more rapidly, and the lowest leaf does not fall 

 away until a good many succeeding ones have been developed ; 

 but as the plants grow higher they add on rings and leaves more 

 and more slowly, and the older they are the fewer leaves do they 

 bear at one time, the contemporaneous leaves in adult plants 

 forming an apical crown exactly as in the larger palms. Neither 

 on the stems nor any other part of the plant do there exist prickles 

 or bristles of any kind ; and even the pubescence of the young 

 leaves and spadices very rarely persists imtil maturity. 



Zeaves.^The leaves, in some species less than a foot long, in 

 others reach 6 feet or more. They are of thinnish but firm tex- 

 ture, and of a pleasant full green colour, which is mostly preserved 

 in the dried specimens. The petiole of the largest leaves rarely 

 exceeds from 1 to 2 feet ; its sheathing base, a few inches long, 

 is strongly but obtusely keeled at the back, but in front is ten- 

 der and fibroso-membranous, soon breaking away after the evolu- 

 tion of the leaf. The lamina varies through all phases of division 

 (except that the pinnse are never cut at the slender acuminate 

 points), being either entire or pinnatisect with 3-5 (rarely 

 more) ligulate or rhomboidal pinnae on each side, or pinnate 

 with from ten to forty pairs of pinnse. AVhere the leaves vary 

 from entire to pinnatisect in the same species, the pinna) or 

 laciniae aremostly of very unequal breadth and scarcely ever oppo- 

 site ; whereas in the species with normally pinnatisect leaves 

 that never become simple, the pinnsD are Usually opposite and 

 subequal — although even in this case one or more of the pairs of 

 pinnae may be broken up into two pairs, whereof the lower pair is 

 narrow and grassy, the number of veins in the whole leaf remain- 



n2 



