is no hope of ascertaining either whether his plant was 
really from Cayenne, or whether it was specifically identical 
with the Kew 7’ excelsa. Under these circumstances, my 
obvious course is to adopt the name of 7’. excelsa, Griseb. 
(an Loddiges ?). 
When described by Grisebach (in 1864), the height of 
the stem was seven feet seven inches, and its diameter 
eight inches; since which it has added three feet three 
inches to its stature, and two inches to its diameter. The 
spread of the crown, which consists of about twenty-four 
leaves, is twenty feet; the length of the petiole is seven 
feet, and the diameter of the leaves about six feet. 
Referring to Patrick Brown’s History of Jamaica 
(p. 191), I find a description of a Palm that answers to 
this, or to 7’. parviflora, and which probably includes both ; 
it is the Palmete Royale or Palmeto Thatch. Brown says 
of it, “It covers whole fields in many parts of the island, 
growing both on the rocky hills and low moist places near 
the sea, but seems to thrive best inthe former. The trunk 
is called Thatch pole ; it stands water well, being never 
corroded or touched by worms. The petioles are very 
tough, and are, when split, used for a thousand purposes.” 
Mr. Jenman sends, besides the spadix of 7. ewcelsa, 
specimens of 1’. parviflora, of which he says that the former 
grows on limestone rocks in the interior forests of the 
island, the latter grows on the sea-coast and prefers 
sand. | 
T. excelsa flowered in May in the Palm House of the 
Royal Gardens, and the flowering was followed in No- 
vember by fully formed globose pale yellowish-white fruits, 
about half an inch in diameter, with a rather thick dry 
spongy pericarp and a globose seed, which, however, con- — 
tained no perfect embryo.—J. D. H. | 
_ Fig. 1, Branches of flowering spadix and flower; 2, section of ovary, both 
enlarged ; 3, portion of spadix with young fruit, of the natural size. 
