Aitalea,] equatoeial-american palms. 167 



Obs. — There are no scars, or other indications of J flowers 

 fallen away, on the spadices in my specimen, whence I conclude 

 them purely female. No other Attalea seems to have spadices so 

 slightly branched ; but the habit is so exactly that of the stemless 

 forms of A, compta and spectahilis — the leaves, with broad flat 

 pinnsD that do not curl in drying, and so fit them admirably for 

 thatch, being the same, as well as the large hard drupes — that (in 

 the absence of flowers, both J and $ ) I venture to refer it to 

 the same genus. 



It is probable that some of the loftier Palms of the Amazon 

 valley, which still remain to be described, are species oi Attalea, 

 A very fine Palm, closely resembling A. speciosa, Mart., but with 

 drupes that turn red when ripe, adorns the banks of the Upper 

 Amazon from the Peruvian frontier to the Andes ; and north of 

 the Amazon, in the roots of the Equatorial Andes, there is an 



Quichua 



Attaleafunift 



of South Brazil, but not long enough to make ropes of. 



Maueitia, Linn.f, 



We enter now on a group of Palms distinct from all those pre- 

 viously described, not only by the important character of tlic 

 scaly or loricated fruits, but by the pinnately branched spadices, 

 which are destitute of any universal envelope, or spatlie, and liave 

 instead the peduncle, rhachis, and primary branches (at least) 

 completely encased in imbricated sheaths (spathellsD). The fan- 

 shaped leaves, which become so through the rhachis being so 

 excessively contracted that the lacinise or pinme appear to all 

 spring from nearly the same point, is a character of less im- 

 portance J for there is one American genus {Uhaphid) and several 

 Asiatic genera of Scaly-fruited Palms which have elongated 

 leaves of the ordinary type. 



It is difficult to decide w^hether Mauritia (as I understand it) 

 should constitute but one, or be divided into three genera. The 

 pretty little Palms called Lepidocaryum by Martins are exactly 

 miniature Mauri tias in the habit, the flabellate leaves, the spa- 

 dices, the structure of the flowers and fruits. It is only in the 

 arrangement of the flowers on the ' spadix that a tangible cha- 

 racter is found to separate them ; for in Lepidocaryum the flowers 

 are distichous on the ultimate branches or spikes ("amenta" 



