Tan. 7108... 
PRESTOEA Carpet. 
Native of Guatemala. 
Nat. Ord. Patme%.—Tribe ARECINEX. 
Genus Prestora, Hook. f. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen, Pl. vol. iii. p. 899.) 
Prestora Carderi ; foliorum segmentis lineari-elongatis 7-nerviis in caudam . 
elongatam filiformem attenuatis, spatha interiore elongata gracili stricta 
coriacea, spadice tomento fulvo-brunneo furfuraceo, floribus minutis roseis | 
glaberrimis, masculis subsymmetricis sepalis minutissimis, petalis el- 
lipsoideis subacutis coriaceo-carnosulis valvatis, fomineis plerisque 
solitariis globoso-ovoideis, sepalis hemisphericis concavis, petalisque 
consimilibus arcte imbricatis, ovario subsymmetrico ovoideo apice obtuse 
3-denticulato 1-loculari, ovulo asymmetrico prope basin loculi erecto. — 
Geonoma Carderi, Bull List of New Se. Plants, 1876, p. 9, cum Ie, xylog. ; 
T. Moore in Florist & Pomologist, 1878, p. 182. 
The graceful Palm here figured was discovered in’ Guate- 
mala by Mr. Carder, a collector in the employment of Mr. 
Bull, and was advertised for sale at Mr. Bull’s establish- 
ment in 1876 under the above name. That it is not a_ 
Gleonoma in habit or foliage is obvious, but until it flowered 
it was impossible to say under what genus of Arecew it 
should have been placed. From the material now avail- 
able in the Royal Gardens, where it flowered for the first 
time in 1889, it may certainly be referred to the subtribe 
Oncospermee (of the ‘‘ Genera Plantarum”), and in so far as 
can be’ determined in the absence of fruit, to the West 
Indian genus Prestoea, which differs from nearly all of the 
subtribes in the petals of the female flower not having 
valvate tips, and from all but Hyospathe in having an erect 
ovule. The only other certainly known Prestoea is the 
P. trinitensis * of Trinidad, which was confounded with 
Hyospathe pubigera in the Flora of the British West Indies ; 
but the Huterpe montana, Grab., of the Island of Grenada, 
* In the “ Genera Plantarum” I gave no specific name to Prestoea ; which 
would imply that I retained that of the plant with which it was confounded 
(Hyospathe pubigera). It has been suggested, however, that this would cause 
confusion, and I therefore now propose that of trinitensis for the original 
Prestoea, which is the more germane from the fact of Mr. Prestoe having been © 
Superintendent of the Trinidad Botanical Gardens, 
Aprin Ist, 1890, 
