Hyphene. | CXLVII. PALMA (WRIGHT). 121 
leaves. Leaves roundish ovate, broader than long, plicate, divided to 
the middle into ensiform replicate segments, subpinnately palmate, 
2-6 ft. long ; petiole as long as the lamina, slightly concave above, con- 
vex below, spiny on the margins, widened and having a fibrous network 
on either side at the base. Male inflorescence : Spadix simply branched, 
2—5 ft. long; peduncle slightly compressed ; branches alternate, woolly, 
acute at the margins, bearing near their apices 2—3 sessile cylindrical cat- 
kins 1 ft. long and 1 in. thick, clothed with numerous imbricate adpressed 
bracts 1 lin. long and 6 lin. broad. Flowers in 6—8 rows, 2—3 enclosed in 
each scale. Calyx trigonous; lobes 3, oblong, obtuse, erect, concealed 
by the bracts. Corolla-tube as long as the calyx; lobes 3, exserted, 
rotate, oblong, obtuse, concave, subcartilaginous, green. Stamens 6, 
inserted in the corolla-tube, patent ; filaments subulate, a little shorter 
than the corolla; anthers oblong. Rudiment of ovary none. Female 
inflorescence similar to the male. Fruit shortly turbinate, very obtuse, 
obscurely trigonous, shining; epicarp chartaceous, thin; mesocarp 
fibrous, rather sweet ; endocarp hard, with an apical pore. Seed carti- 
laginous, hollow in the centre—Drude in Engl. Jahrb. xxi. 110; 
Durand & Schinz, Conspect. Fl. Afr. v. 461, and Etudes FI. Congo, i. 
274; Giissfeldt & Pechuel-Loesche, Die Loango-Exped. i. t. 1; Rendle 
in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. ii. 83. 
Lower Guinea. Estuary of the Congo: Isle of Mateba, Dupont. Loango, 
ex Drude. Angola: plentiful on dry or sandy hills, especially between Barra do 
Bengo and Barro do Dande, Welwitsch, 6662! Ambriz; maritime hills near Quizembo, 
Welwitsch, 6668! along long tracts of coast from Dande and Lifune as far as the 
mouth of the River Cuanza, Welwitsch, 6670! Lo»nda; on the coast between 
Ambriz and Loanda, Welwitsch, fruit 1052! Guinea, without exact locality, Thonning. 
Native name, Songu-Tjo, ex Schumacher & Thonning. 
5. Hf. crinita, Gorin. Fruct. ii. 13, ¢. 82, fig. 4. Stem 20-30 ft. 
high, more or less flexuose or erect, undivided. Leaves large, with 
fibres between the lobes, covered on both surfaces with very fugacious 
white tomentum, scabrous on the margins and upper sides of the nerves ; 
ligule large and nearly equilateral; petiole sheathing at the base, spiny 
on the margin, deeply channelled above. Fruit oblong or obovate, 
depressed, smooth ; pericarp containing numerous fibres shorter than 
the thick subglobose putamen. Seed attached below its centre.— Mart. 
Palm. iii. 227; Kirk in Journ. Linn. Soe. ix. 235 ; Wendl. in Bot. Zeit. 
1881, 92; Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 130 ; Drude in Engl. Jahrb. xxi. 110, 
122; C. H. Wright in Dyer, Fl. Cap. vii. 30. H. natalensis, G. Kunze 
in Linnea, xx. 15; Gard. Chron. 1890, viii. 381. H. petersiana, 
Klotzsch ex Mart. Palm. iii. 227. 
Mozamb. Dist. German East Africa: Usambara; by the River Pangani in 
Mauia district, Stuhlmann, 24 (ex Drude), Portuguese East Africa and British 
Central Africa : “200 miles up the Zambesi it is common, also at the south end of 
Nyasa, and on the River Shire,” ex Kirk. Mozambique and Sofala, ex Drude. 
Also in Natal and Madagascar. 
6. H. Goetzei, Dammer in Engl. Jahrb. xxviii. 354. A tree 
50-65 ft. high. Stem simple. Leaves about 3 ft. by 4} ft. ; petiole 
