Tas. 7088. 
THRINAX EXCELSA. 
Native of Jamaica. 
Nat. Ord, Patmem.—Tribe Coryrue.x. 
Genus Turtnax, Linn. f. ; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 930.) 
Turinax eaxcelsa; caudice elato creberrime annulato, petiolo 5-7-pedali, 
vagina tomento floccoso fulvo densissime lanata, lamina orbiculari 6-ped. 
diametro ad tertiam partem multifida subtus obscure argentata, laciniis 
40-50 ad basin 23-3 poll. latis ensiformibus acuminatis 7-nerviis, ligula 
triangulari viridi, spadice 3-4-pedali decurvo paniculatim ramoso, ramulis 
5-6 pollicaribus glaberrimis recurvis, spathis 6-8 poll. longis cylindraceis 
appressis obtusis tenuiter fusco-furfuraceis, perianthio late campanulato 
brevissime 6-lobulato lobulis apiculatis, antheris lineari-oblongis, fila- 
mentis longioribus, ovario ellipsoideo, stylo brevi, fructu globoso pallido 
pericarpo spongioso, semine globoso. 
Turinax excelsa, Griseb, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. p. 515, an Lodd. Cat. Palms 
(1849) ? 
This beautiful Palm has been cultivated for many years 
in the Palm House of the Royal Gardens under the name 
Thrinaz excelsa of Loddiges; but on what authority has 
not been handed down. The specimen is, no doubt, one 
of two mentioned by J. Smith in his “ Records of Kew” 
(1880) as being old plants in 1823, and of which he says 
the native country is doubtful. Latterly the Kew plant 
in question has been fathered on Jamaica, and as such this 
very specimen is described by Grisebach in his Flora of 
the British West Indies. And that this is a correct view 
of its fatherland is supported by the fact that there is in 
Kew Herbarium a dried specimen of a spadix perfectly 
according with that of the spadix of the plant here figured, 
sent by Mr. Jenman (when Superintendent of the Jamaica 
Botanical Garden) from woods in the interior of that island. 
‘Loddiges, on the other hand, gives Cayenne as the native 
country of his 7. excelsa, a country from which no Thrinaz 
is now in cultivation. This point of locality may, I fear, 
never be cleared up, for Loddiges’ catalogue contains no _ 
description, and a mark attached to the name 7’ excelsa_ 
implies that it was a solitary specimen. Furthermore, 
Loddiges’ collection having been long since dispersed, there 
Decemsen Ist, 1889. 
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