speaks of it as a smaller palm than the P. Alexandras 

 (which attains 70-80 ft.), and at vol. viii. p. 222 of the 

 same work he gives 50 ft. as the height of a specimen from 

 Whitsunday Island, with the trunk 4-6 inches in 

 diameter. "This latter (4 inches) is that of the trunk of 

 the Kew plant, from which it may be inferred that, 

 as this is its first year of flowering, it will attain a much 

 greater height. But the fact is that the Ptychospermae of 

 Australia require to be carefully studied in their native 

 country, and until this is done P. elegans must be regarded 

 as doubtfully identified. 



There is no available record of the introduction of P. 

 elegans into Kew, where it has been established in the 

 Palm House for a great many years, but it may be pre- 

 sumed that the first imported seeds were received from 

 Allan Cunningham, collected possibly at Sandy (not 

 Sunday, as in Fl. Austral.) Island, during King's voyage 

 (1818), to which Cunningham was attached as botanist in 

 the interests of Kew. The name of Pinanga Smithii, 

 in all probability originated in some continental gardens 

 to which a young plant had been contributed from Kew, 

 and to which was given the name of the late Curator of 

 that establishment, whose success as a raiser of Palms 

 was famous). The specimen figured is now 18 feet in 

 height, with a trunk four inches in diameter at the base 

 above the roots ; the leaves are 6| ft. long, and the leaflets 

 2 ft. long by 3 inches wide. It flowered in May, 1893, 

 and did not mature fruit. 



Descr. — A rather slender palm, " variously described as 

 low, or very tall," Benth. ; trunk in the Kew specimen 

 13 feet high, and 4 inches diam. at the base above the 

 rooting portion. Leaves 6|- ft. long, recurved; rachis 

 semilunar in cross section ; leaflets 2 ft. long by (the 

 broadest) 8 inches broad, linear, tip very obliquely truncate 

 and toothed, bright green, paler beneath ; sheath 18 by 24 

 in. long by 6-7 in. broad. Spadix 12-18 inches long, in- 

 serted below the leaves, very shortly peduncled, broadly 

 triangular, repeatedly divided into strict branchlets ; 

 peduncle compressed ; branchlets slender, terete. Flowers 

 sessile, ternate, a fern, between two males. Male fl. oblong, 

 and obtuse in bud, when expanded J in. in diam. ; sepals 

 orbicular ; petals oblong, obtuse ; stamens very numerous, 



