124 cook: the mascarene cabbage palm 



on the back; petals oblong-oval, narrowed and somewhat apiculate at 

 the tip, valvate in the bud; stamens 6, the anthers much longer than 

 the filaments in the bud, but exserted at anthesis, when the filaments 

 somewhat exceed the petals. Pistillode tapering gradually from a 

 rather robust conic base, distinctly but minutely tridentate at apex, 

 distinctly exceeded by the mature filaments. Pistillate flowers with 

 sepals Mini pistils similar, broadly suborbicular, subcordate at base, the 

 petals over twice as long as the sepals, somewhat apiculate at apex, 

 widely overlapping to form a rather deep cup. Stammodes minute, 

 broadly triangular, persistent. 



Fruit dull purplish at maturity, nearly symmetrical, rather narrowly 

 conic-oval or subfusiform, tapering abruptly below but much more 

 gradually above, and with an abruptly shouldered apical stigma-scar; 

 pericarp fleshy, greenish, very thin, when dry adherent to the thin 

 mesocarp, and this in turn to the thin, bony endocarp; mesocarp 

 fibers fine, close-set, frequently branched or anastomosing but the 

 branches not diverging; endocarp thin and fragile, but consisting of 

 a distinct laver of bony palisade tissue, as in Archontophoenix. 



Seed oval, somewhat flattened at the base and slightly apiculate 

 above at the chalaza; raphe scarcely impressed, without distinct fibers, 

 but j>;ivin<i- rise at the chalaza and sparingly elsewhere to an open 

 aetwork of impressed fibers following the grooves of the deep radial 

 ruminations. Embrj^o erect, basal. 



. As diagnostic characters may be mentioned the simply branched 

 inflorescence, the small number of stamens, the rather narrowly oval 

 fruit and seed, the mesocarp of fine compact fibers, and the bony endo- 

 carp. The last feature is shared with Archontophoenix, but not the 

 others. The broad coarse mesocarp fibers and adherent endocarp of 

 Loroma are very different. 



In general habit and aspect Linoma is not unlike Loroma, which 

 shares the attractive resemblance to the coconut palm. A few days 

 after Leaving Payta a fine display of Loroma was seen in the Plaza 

 de Armas, at Lima, in front of the Cathedral where tourists goto pay 

 their respects to the bones of Pizarro. 



The generic name alludes to the fine, compact texture of the fibrous 

 mesocarp layer of the fruit, a feature which distinguishes at once this 

 genus from Loroma and Archontophoenix. 



The mesocarp filters are much more numerous, finer, and closer than 

 those of Loroma. The individual fibers begin to branch not far above 

 the base, and the divisions often split again near the middle of the seed, 

 and then taper gradually, becoming very delicate before the apex is 

 reached. .\11 of the fibers are very closely united, forming a much 

 thinner and more compact coal than in Loroma or Archontophoenix. 



