■J- > ^ 



162 DB- B. SPRUCE ON [Cocos. 



bini, e cinereo flavida?, mesocarpio eduli sapore drupanmi Maxi7m' 



liana regice, 

 O65.— Anne potius ad genus Syagriiin (Martii) referenda, quum spatha 



duplex invenitur ? 



This handsome Palm, notable for its short curling yellowish 

 foliage, forms large beds on the bare granite of the mountains of 

 the Orinoco, between the mouths of the Vichada and INIeta, It 

 is a conspicuous ornament on the Cerro de Mono and on the hills 

 around Maypures, ascending to their very summits, about 1000 

 feet above the river. Near the cataracts there are fruiting speci- 

 mens no more than 12 feet high, and few exceed 30 feet ; but on 

 tbe mountains there are others 50, or even 60 feet high. The 

 fruit was just ripe at the time of my visit to Maypures, in June, 

 1854. It is a yellowish-grey drupe, like tliat o^ Maodmiliana regia, 

 and the hardish mesocarp is edible but insipid. 



At Maypures I heard this Palm called " Corozito " — a name 

 that seems common to many Palms with hard kernels. 



MAxiiriLTANA, Mart. 



L 



The PaJm about to be described — ^I regret to say, very incom- 

 pletely 



(the " Inaja " of the Brazilians), that I introduce it here, although 

 my notes on the fresh plant are very brief, and I am unable to 

 reconsult the specimens denosited in the Kew Museum. But it 



Maximiliana 



Maximiliana 



The 



(with 



upper) — or, 



as Martina has it, " spadices in eadem stirpe alii androgyni, alii 

 masculi" — is a character common to many Palms: we have seen 

 it to be frequent in Geonotna ; and I should expect to find it in 

 undeniable species of Cocos, as well as oi Maximiliana. Karsten 

 compares Maximiliuna with his own Scheelea and with Attalea, 

 Mart., from both of which it is said to differ in the exserted sta- 

 mens, and from the former in the plane (not terete) petals. But 

 Martins' s second species oi Maadmiliana (M, insignis), which he de- 

 scribes with cf flowers "non supra femineos in eodemramopositi,sed 

 ad eorum latera provenientes," is removed by Karsten to Scheelea. 

 I very much doubt the generic importance of these differences. 

 Maximiliana Inajai^ like M. regia^ has the woody boat-like 



