100 DR. B, SPKIICE o» [Oeonoma, 



ing unchanged. It is, in fact, on tlic number of the veins, rather 

 than on that of the laciniac or pinna), and on the angle they form 

 with the costa or rhachis, that reliance is to ho placed in discri- 

 minating the species, although further observation is needed to 

 determine between what limits these characters vary. The number 

 of primary veins is also that of vernation-folds. The secondary 

 veins, along which is the reentering angle of each fold, are often 

 indistinct on the upperside of the leaf; but on tlie underside they 

 are more prominent than the primary, and are there clad with a 

 deciduous tomentum, mostly ferruginous and scaly, but some- 

 times white and felty, being the only part of the leaf on which 

 pubescence of any kind exists, except the petiole, which is, when 

 young, more or less clad with the same kind of tomentum, and 

 only becomes bald with age. 



Spadices. — The plants begin to flower when a few rings high ; 

 and thereafter every ring or axU in some species bears a spadix 

 in its turn ; but in oth^r species two or more rings intervene be- 

 tween the successive spadices ; and a unisexual spadix often alter- 

 nates with one bearing flowers of both sexes. In the atemless, 

 or apparently stemless, species both leaves and spadices arc, or 

 seem to be, radical. The spadices vary in length from 2 or 3 

 inches to as many feet, and are usually suberect in flower, pendu- 

 lous in fruit. They are simple, on long stalks, in a few species 

 of peculiar aspect ; but in most of the species they are branched. 



with 



irregular 



parallel branches render the panicle scopaeform, although far less 

 so than in the (Enocarpi. No good or constant character can be 

 drawn from the branches being simple or again branched, although 

 in a few species the branching is tolerably true to one mode or 

 the other- The whole of the spadix is, when young, clad more or 

 less densely with very short, squarrose, and often crispate hairs, 

 but becomes denuded usually about the time of flowering, leaving 

 the cuticle rugose or shagreened. The branches are floriferous 

 from a little above the base, nearly or quite to the apex, the 

 flowers being contained in rather closely set deep alveoles, which 

 are oblong or ovate in outline, and have more or less of a rim 

 widening on the lower side into a sort of lip,'whose form affords 

 one of the best specific characters. The alveoles are normally 

 uniflorous, the middle flower being $ , the two lateral (and more 

 precocious) flowers S; but sometimes all the alveoles on a spadix 



J. " 



