rings loaded with stiff black straight slender spines two 
to three inches long, which when young are flattened and 
silkily villous. eaves four to five feet long, terminal, 
bright green, paler beneath, spreading and drooping ; 
petiole and rachis armed with scattered very slender 
spines ; pinne eight to ten pairs, nine to twelve inches 
long by three to four broad, inserted by a broad base on 
the trigonous mealy or scurfy rachis, elongate-cuneate, 
truncate, more or less three-lobed at the apex, which is 
further lobulate and erose; sides usually produced into 
acuminate drooping laciniz one to two inches long, pli- 
cately many-nerved, midrib distinct; petiole one to two 
feet long, with an open basal sheath. Spathe a foot long, 
elongate-clavate, aculeate. Spadix very long-peduncled, 
glabrous or nearly so, loosely branched; branches green, 
slender; bracts at their bases half an inch long, lanceolate 
from a broad base, membranous, appressed to the branch ; 
bracteoles very short, semi-linear, brown; flowers sessile, 
yellow-green, rather distant, one-sixth of an inch long; 
males most numerous, females at the lower part of the 
branches. Mate Fiowsr. Calys# short, three-lobed. Petals 
three, ovate, subacute, valvate. Stamens six, included, 
filaments short; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary rudimentary, 
minute, three-lobed. Frmare Fiowgr. Sepals broad, mem- 
branous, reniform. Petals broadly ovate, obtuse, concave, 
slightly imbricate. Disk cup-shaped, toothed. Ovary 
globose, with three very small conical stigmas. Drwpe (in 
New Granada specimen) globose, crowned by the terminal 
stigmas ; endocarp bony, with three pits round the equator, 
each surrounded by radiating lines. Seed globose, intruded 
at the base, testa brown, albumen solid ; embryo opposite 
one of the pores of the endocarp.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Reduced figure of the palm; 2, portion of rachis and pinna; 3, a young 
spine; 4, portion of spadix ; 5, male flower; 6, the same laid open; 7, front, and 
8, back view of stamen ; 9, rudimentary ovary of male flower; 10, female flower; 
11, the same with the perianth removed; 12, transverse section of ovary :—all but 
Sigs. 2, 3, and 4 much enlarged. 
