sented in our figure, in the autumn of 1856. These flowers 
were, none of them, succeeded by fruit. 
Descr. “ Palma adspectus gratissima,” as Martius has night- 
ly remarked. The ¢ruak or caudex is said to attain a height of 
thirty feet in its native country, erect, slender, annulated with 
the transverse scars of fallen leaves, dark green, almost glossy, 
crowned with a spreading tuft of beautifully pinnated /eaves or 
fronds, eight to ten feet long, which have long sheathing bases 
to the petioles. Pimne numerous, narrow-lanceolate, spreading, 
a foot or a foot and a half long, several of them unequally bifid 
at the apex, one segment being much longer than the rest. 
From the caudex, and below the bases of the leaves, the spa- 
dices, two in our plant, burst out from opposite sides, of a fleshy 
nature, and a dull, pale-lilac colour, each from a double (outer 
and inner) spatha, and forming a drooping, much-branched pa- 
nicle, with many scattered sessile flowers, some male and some 
female. Flowers and ;fruit as described in the generic character, 
except that the anthers are rather oval-oblong than linear, and 
that the female has the rudiments of six stamens at the base. 
Fig. 1. Entire plant, on a very reduced scale. 2. Portion of spadix of flowers : 
—nat, size. 3, 4. Male flowers more or less expanded. 5. Stamen. 6. Rudi- 
ment of pistil from male flower. 7. Female flower. 8. Pistil. (9. Fruit :— 
nat. size. 10, 11. Sections of ditto) :—magnified. 
