cook: the mascarene cabbage palm 123 



designation of a generic type the application of the name Dictyo- 

 sperma appears somewhat uncertain. The possibility has to be 

 considered that the genus was not in reality based on the true 

 Areca alba Bory, but upon some other palm or palms whose 

 characters had been adopted as those of Bory's species. The 

 original description of the genus includes several characters that 

 do not appear in the palm studied at Payta. In this the flowers 

 are crowded irregularly and are often in pairs or solitary, instead 

 of being arranged in clusters of three, distichous at the base of 

 the branches and in spirals above. The pistillode is conic and 

 tapering instead of long and columnar, and the fruit rather nar- 

 rowly conic-oval, instead of globose-elliptic. 



Thus the problem is not merely to find a name that can be 

 used in place of Dictyosperma, if this be rejected as a homonym, 

 but to have a generic designation that is more definitely appli- 

 cable to the palm current in the horticultural world as Areca 

 alba or Dictyosperma album. Under the circumstances it appears 

 inadvisable to propose a new name merely as a substitute for 

 Dictyosperma, since this might carry over to the future the 

 same uncertainty that now attends the application of this 

 generic name. These possibilities of further confusion may be 

 reduced by considering the specimens collected at Payta as type 

 material of a new genus, for which the name Linoma is proposed. 

 The specimens have been labeled Linoma alba (Bory), deposited 

 in the U. S. National Herbarium, and catalogued under numbers 

 866367 ; 866368, 866369, and 866370. 



Linoma Cook, gen. nov. 



Trunk solitary, rather robust, distinctly enlarged at base, with 

 rather short internodes and deeply impressed leaf-scars. Leaves large, 

 compound, with very numerous lanceolate pinnae, slender, splitting 

 at the tip, not praemorse. 



Spathes two, both complete, thin and membranous in texture, 

 promptlv deciduous as soon as released by the fall of the subtending 

 leaf. 



Inflorescence with numerous, simple, tapering branches, the flowers 

 crowded irregularly on the axis, inserted singly or in pairs in distinct 

 notches or pits. 



Flowers pale green, the staminate with small, triangular sepals, 

 rather thick and fleshy in the middle, prominent or somewhat carinate 



