NOTHS ON PHILIPPINE PALMS, L 
By Dr. Odoakdo Bkccarf. 
{Florence^ Italy.) 
An enunioration of the palms growing in the Philippine Islands was 
recently published by me/ but as tlie extensive botanical exj)lorations 
now in progress in the Archipelago are continiially bringing fo light 
numerous new forms of this fine group of plants, it is my purpose to 
describe them in these "notes" as material, courteously transmitted 
to me at Florence by Elmer D. Merrill, Botanist of the Bureau of Science 
at Manila, becomes available. 
ARECA Uiin. 
Areca Whitfordii Becc. n. sp. 
Major, candicc circ. 10 m. alto, 20 cm. crasso. Folia ampUssima, 
limbo 2.3-2.5 m. longo; petiole brevi, 15 cm. longo, 2.5-3 em. spisso, 
superne profunde sulcato, marginibus acutis, vagina 1 m. longa; seg- 
mentis numerosis inaequidistantibus et faciculatis, costulis 2-3 validis- 
simis et supeme valde prominentibus percursis, basi argute 2-3-plicatis ; 
segmentis intermediis circiter metralibus, 4.5-5 cm. latis, falciformibus, 
longe acuminatis; su2:>erioribus sensim brevioribus et apice obtuse den- 
tatis; duobus terminalibus basi unitis, pluricostulatis. ' Spadices 45 cm. 
longi, 3-plicato-ramosi. Flores d* Fruetus pcrianthio cyathi- 
formi-obconico 15 mm. alto suffulti, elongato-elliptici, 40^2 mm. longi, 
18 mm, crassi, fere aequaliter utrinque sensim attenuati, apice truncate, 
3 mm. lato, mammillaeformi et in medio breviter nmcronulato; meso- 
carpii fibris tenuissimis, numerosissimis, pluriseriatis. 
A rather large palm, about 10 m. high. Stem 20 cm. in diameter. 
(WJiiiford). Leaves very large; the leaf-sheath about 1 m. in length, 
coriaceous, its inner surface silvery white and more strongly striate than 
the outer; the petiole comparatively very short (15 em. long in one speci- 
men), 2.5-3 cm. thick, deeply channeled above, its margins sharp; the 
pinuiferous part 2.3-2.5 m. long, its rachis very robust, round near the 
base beneath and somewhat depressed and flattish in the intermediate por- 
tion. The leaflets numerous, rather closely set, incquidistant and more or 
^Le l^ilme delle Isole Filippino, in Wehbia (1905) 281-350. See also: Palmae 
in Perkins, Frag. FI. Philip. (1904) 45-48. 
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