ties. ‘he majority of them are also very unsuited to afford 
specimens that can be of practical utility in the Herbarium, to 
say nothing of the time and trouble required for preparing good 
specimens. Happily the culture of the Palms in our stoves has 
of late years prevailed, both in our own country and upon the 
Continent, and very many species have produced their flowers 
with us ; but still there remains the difficulty of reconciling our 
species with those that have been figured and described, too 
often from imperfect samples. 
The little Palm before us, which does not appear to exceed, if 
equals, the height of a man, attracts attention by the rich, 
coral-like, simple, thick, and fleshy spadices, almost a foot long, 
—while young, green indeed, but then studded with the red fe- 
male flowers, placed at considerable distances from each other. 
With quite the habits of a Geonoma, and much resembling more 
than one species of that genus figured by D’Orbigny in his 
‘ Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale,’ it is nevertheless a true 
Chamedorea, a graceful genus of small reed-stemmed palms, pe- 
culiar to the tropical parts of South America, of which forty-two 
species are given in Wendland’s ‘ Enumeratio Systematica Cha- 
meedorearum.’ The present is a native of Tabasco, in New 
Granada, where it was found by Mr. Linden, and was received 
by us from Mr. Linden, under the name of “ Geonome sp.” 
Mr. Wendland indeed, in his useful ‘ Index Palmarum,’ tells us 
that in different gardens this plant has gone under the name of 
Chamedorea latifrons, Ch. simplicifrons, Geonoma latifrons, and 
Hyospathe elegans. Another Palm, with altogether this habit 
as to stem and foliage, which we received from the same source 
as “ Chamedoree sp.,” has flowered with us. It exhibited, at 
the flowering-season, branched, slender spadices. This, one of 
our intelligent German gardeners, Mr. Hannemann, who had 
been in Mr. Van Houtte’s establishment at Ghent, recognized 
as what was considered there the male of the present plant, and 
we were not long in determining the plant to be the Chamedorea 
Lirnesti- Augusti of Wendland. This male plant will be given in 
our next number. 
Descr. Our Palm has attained a height of five feet from the 
ground, including the leaves. The stem or caudew is erect, reed- 
like, about two inches in diameter, marked with the scars of 
fallen leaves, and thus appearing jointed: from the lower portion 
above the ground, many thick, fleshy roots appear, and de- 
scend into the earth. Leaves terminal, ten or twelve, about two 
feet long, including the petiole; the blade is broad-cuneate, with 
a deep slit almost half-way down from the apex, which divides 
the leaf into two large spreading acuminated lobes; the margins 
are serrated, the sinuses more or less deep, but never reaching 
to the midrib, and rarely exhibiting a deep gash: the surface 
