pheniz alba, Horne; it is the “ Choux Palmiste” of the 
islanders. 
The Island of Mauritius, with its dependency Rodriguez, 
contains more endemic species of Palms than the Seychelles 
do, but fewer genera, namely, nine species under four 
genera, two of them under Acanthophenix, which genus, as 
before observed, is common to the Seychelles. 
The history of the introduction of Stevensonia is thus 
given by the late J. Smith, for many years Curator of the 
Royal Gardens, Kew :—* This fine Palm was discovered on 
Round Island, one of the Seychelle group, by Mr. J. 
Duncan, Director of the Mauritius Botanic Gardens. It 
was growing in marshy places. In 1855 he sent three 
plants to Kew under the name of Latania aurea, but after- 
wards finding it to be a distinct genus, he gave it the name 
of Stevensonia, in compliment to the then Governor of 
Mauritius, who favoured his botanical excursions to the 
different islands. In 1857 Mr. Wendland, Director of the. 
Royal Gardens Herrenhausen, Hanover, visited Kew, and | 
was anxious to obtain a plant of this rare Palm; I had 
marked one of the plants for him, and on taking him to 
the nursery pits to show it to him, it was not to be found. 
This led to a strict inquiry, and it was found that it had 
been stolen by a German gardener then employed in the 
Gardens, and it afterwards appeared in a private garden in 
Berlin ; and some years ago I heard that it had grown to 
be a fine plant. Mr. Wendland, being a writer on Palms, 
set aside the name Stevensonia, and substituted for it 
Pheenicophorium, which means the thief Palm, which I 
consider was not justified, and also that it was a very 
undigified name for such a noble Palm, and founded on 
such an ignoble circumstance.” The name Stevensonia 
had from the first been retained in all the “‘ Kew Guides,’’ as 
it was in 1877 by Balfour in Baker’s “Flora of Mauritius,” 
with the observation that ** the name Phenicophorium. .« - 
invented for the purpose of commemorating the disgraceful 
fact. of this Palm having been stolen from Kew by a 
foreign employé should surely be suppressed ;”’ and it is so 
in the * Genera Plantarum,” published in 1883. 
Stevensonia is common in all the Islands of the Seychelle 
group, attaining a height of forty to fifty feet ; the species 
here figured is probably one of the original plants men- 
* 
