238 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Trunk erect, unarmed, 30 to 40 feet tall, 4 inches in diameter; internodes 
4 inches long; leaves 5 or 6 in a head; leaf sheath 34 feet long, smooth; rachis 
93 feet long, triangular above, rounded below, pinnate to the very base, some- 
what channelled but only at the base; pinne 88 to 40 pairs, about equidistant, 
the lowest very minute, the middle 3 feet’ long with a breadth of 8 inches, in- 
serted at an angle of 40 to 50 degrees; base semivertical, reduplicate; apex 
obtuse or truncate, premorse; outer margin and apex with premorse or sub- 
acute teeth. 
Inflorescences clustered, 3, one female and two male rising in the same axil, 
those with ripe fruit usually on the fourth ring below the leaves; spathes 6, 
three complete, three incomplete; outer incomplete spathes 4 inches long, inner 
11 inches long, 3 inches broad, fusiform; spathes covered with appressed hairs. 
Male inflorescence with 8 simple branches 6 inches long, twisted to the left 
in the early stages before flowering, afterwards nearly straight, densely covered 
with flowers; sepals scale-like, short, rigid, chestnut colored, valvate in the bud, 
3 to 5 (for the most part 4), broadly subulate, rather obtuse, a line long, free 
or sometimes 2-parted; petals 3, very long (7 lines), narrowly subulate, sub- 
flexuous; stamens 12 to 16, usually 13; anthers 4 lines long, obtusely 4-angled, 
2-celled, attached a little above the base to a short, subulate, compressed fila- 
ment 4 to 1 line long; longitudinally dehiscent, covered with white, flexuous, 
deciduous hairs, the slender connection produced into a somewhat curved point; 
pollen lobes smooth. 
Female inflorescence similar to the male; branches 5 to 7, crowded, 8 inches 
long, diameter including fruit almost 4 inches; sepals 8, 2 to 3 lines long, sub- 
equal; petals 3, 5 to 6 lines long; ovaries 8, oval, 34 lines long, united to each 
other and with the style; ovule single from the internal angle of the base, 
almost erect, sessile, anatropous; style single, central, 7 lines long, subulate, 
sometimes 3-angled, villous for the most part, with the abortive ovaries at the 
base of the ovule rarely deciduous; stigmas 3, terete, erect, flexuous, 3 lines 
long. 
Fruits 1-seeded, dry and crowded on the spadix, 3 to 6-angular by mutual 
pressure, obpyramidate, the apex broadly convex, covered with ashy hairs; 
pericarp softly woody, rather delicate, thicker at apex; endocarp membranous, 
adhering to the vessels of the raphe; seed 11 by 6 lines, narrow below, obovate- 
subtriangular; testa thin, firm, blackish, marked from the base to the apex 
with the delicate raphe and reticular with the flattened white adherent fibers 
of it grown together with the kernel; albumen uniform, somewhat bony; em- 
bryo in basal cavity, conical-eylindrical, directed toward the center of the seed. 
In a more recent publication of Spruce’s field notes is the following paragraph 
on this palm: 
“ Wettinia maynensis (Palmae) is now very frequent and grows occasionally 
close by the margin, along with the Iriarteas, from which it is distinguished at 
sight by the pinn# being equidistant and all spreading out from the rachis 
horizontally, but pendulous (from their weight) toward the apex, so that the 
entire frond has a widely channelled form. In the Iriarteas the laciniw of the 
pinne are in fascicles, the uppermost of each fascicle standing out above the 
rachis, the lowest pendulous, the rest at intermediate angles. Female spadix 
very constantly five-branched.” * 
*Kew Bull. Misc. Inf. 1909: 221. 1909. 
