Mauritia.^ equatorial- American palms. 175 



lanceolatum productis; hiac fissis, ramulum brevem ex axilla pro- 

 ferentibuS; vaginati, tomento badio deciduo primum vestiti. 

 Flores $ cuj usque ramuli subpauciores quam in priore; bractas magis 

 obliquae extus lonrfus acuminatse ; pctala anooistioi'a ; andt'ccceum 



conforme. 



aniruste 



voideae longius apiculata; rostellataeque, squamulis parvis (11x11 

 lin., 11x9 lin.) fere aquilatere rhombeis badiis limbo lato pallido 

 membranaceo fimbriato scmicinctis loricata?. 



Ols, — AVell distinguished from the foregoing by the narrower 

 pinnae ; but especially by the smaller slenderer fruits clad taifh 

 much smaller and nearly equilateral scales, which are fringed on 

 all the exposed margin — not much broader than long and fringed 

 merely at the point as they are in M. Casiquiarensis. 



Appendix, e quatuor Pandanaceaincm descriptionibus constans. 



Pattelepkas, Ruiz et Pavon. 



In proceeding to give some account of the Palms the hard 

 albumen of whose seeds is the substance known in the arts as 

 " Vegetable Ivory/* I shall not reopen the question of their place 

 in the system, whether as an outlying genus of the great order of 



Palmaceas, or as a genuine member of the allied order Pandana- 

 cese. If an enlarged view be taken of the latter order, so as to 

 include Cyclanthacese within its limits, I do not see how Phytele- 

 phas can be left out ; and then, as Ivory Palms, on the one hand, 

 may seem to trench on the territory of the true Palms, so may 

 Cyclanths, on the other hand, upon that of Arads. But, as new 

 vegetable forms are discovered, to the enrichment of our herbaria, 

 their continual tendency is to narrow or completely obliterate the 

 intervals between closely allied groups, whose definition is thereby 

 rendered more and more difficult at the same time that their affi- 



nities are placed beyond dispute ; and systematists must be con- 

 tent to " accept the situation." 



In ascending the Amazon, it is not until we reach the mouths 

 of the tributary rivers whose remotest sources are in the peaks oi 

 the Andes that we find any species of Phytelephas. In the 

 eastern roots of the Peruvian and Equatorial Andes two species 

 are tolerably abundant, and in some places cover large plots of 

 ground, under the shade of lofty trees, growing chiefly near streams 

 and on springy hillsides, up to 3000 feet altitude, I first fell in 

 with one of them a little above the mouth of the Napo, whose 

 main sources are in the snowy Antisana and Cotopaxi. This is a 



