128 DR. R. SPRUCE ON [Wettinia, 



longce, 18 lineas latso, 15 lineas crassa?, oblongo-globosa) subcom- 

 pressa3 basi subgibb^j epicarjnum membranaceum sordide sangui- 

 neum , 'i)iesocarpmm camosuni (ednle) j e^ulocarpmii crassum, propo 

 basin foraminatum, lamiuis plurimis constans ; lamina extima e fibris 

 validis corneo-lignesceutibus intertextis anastomosantlbusque^ inte- 

 rioribus e fibris teuuioribus solum intertextus formatis. Testa semiiiis 

 tenuis membranacea badia^ ex eudocai^io separabilis, raphes vasibus 

 pallldis obscure radiautibus extus percursa. 



Obs. — So long as tbis palm docs not exceed 10 to 20 feet in 

 lieiglitj it has the stem enveloped to the very base in the persis- 

 tent beard of the petioles ; but when it grows higher, the beard 

 usually falls away in a mass, leaving at the top merely the short 

 beard that depends from the crown of existing leaves. The former 

 state is represented in Mr. Wallace's plate, which, however, gives 

 the palm a stunted aspect it does not really possess, in conse- 

 quence of the leaves being shown only half so long as they ought 

 to be, in proportion to the thickness of the stem ; those I mea- 

 sured were from 15^ to 16| English feet long, and had never 

 fewer than 60 pairs of pinnse. 



The petioles are about 4^ feet long, and for about 8 inches at 

 the base they sheath the stem, being concavo-convex at the back, 

 and in front consisting of a network of crossing brown ribands or 

 flat threads, which are prolonged into a pendulous beard, as much 

 as 4 feet 9 inches long on young plants, but dwindling as the 

 plants increase in height, so that in a specimen 40 feet high I 

 found the beard but 1 foot 9 inches long. 



The spadices reach 4 to 5 feet in length, and are four times 

 branched, the ultimate and floriferous ramuli being very slender as 

 in every species of this genus. The male flowers exhale a deli- 

 cious odour of Mignonnette, like that of Maicritia {OropJiomd) 

 Carand, Wallace. 



The fruits (of which I saw only unripe specimens) are If inch 

 long, nearly as broad, and somewhat compressed, but much less 

 so than in L. jpnlchra and major \ and the fleshy mesocarp has 

 scarcely any of the bitterness of that of the other species, so that, 

 when triturated with boiling water, it afl'ords a creamy "wine," 

 said to be even more delicious than that of Assai. 



AVetti:nia, Popp. et Endl. 



Having already, in the Linnean Society's Journal for April 1859 

 (vol. iii. p. 194), fully discussed the characters and affinities of this 



m- .'V 



