08 ME. E. SPEUOE ON LEOPOLDINIA PIASSABA. 



Amenta terminalia foliis arete abscondita, e floribus 2-4 constantia ; 

 mascula subrariflora, squaniis apice subpallidioribus integris aut sub- 

 divisis filamentis geminis liberis pallidis et glabris duplo brevioribus, 

 antheris rotundatis sat magnis, fuscioribus ; feminea ovato-ovalia e 

 capsulis 4-6 composita, in apice ramulorum capituliformi sessilia et 

 foliis oceultata; capsulae lineam longae, exacte conicae, glaberrimse, 

 testaceo-rufescentes, dorso squama rotundata glaberrima apice infus- 

 cata involutse, nectario capitato glabro ventrem capsulae superante ; 

 stylus vix conspicuus ; stigmata minima, divaricata-. 

 S. oreophila et S. secta inter se eodem modo affines sunt ut <S. Brayi 

 et S. berberifolia ; bene autem distinguuntur non tantum habitu toto 

 fruticuli sed etiam foliis et amentis. 



On Leopoldinia Piassaba, Wallace. By Eichaed Speuce, Esq. 

 Communicated by G-eoege Bentham, Esq., V.P.L.S. 



[Read June 16th, 1859.] 



As the palm producing the Piassaba of the Rio Negro — ^better 

 known as that of Para, from which port it is exported in vast 

 quantities to Europe and N. America — has been supposed, for 

 want of sufficient data, identical witli the Attalea funifera of Mar- 

 tins, which furnishes the Piassaba of Bahia, I am desirous of lay- 

 ing before the Linnean Society a description of the former, which 

 has been correctly referred by Mr. Wallace to the genus Leopol- 

 dinia. In proof of this assertion, I need cite only the most pro- 

 minent characters : thus, in L. Piassaha Wallace, the male flowers 

 have six monadelphous stamens, and the fruit is a herry with a 

 sarcocarp composed of thich interlacing fibres, as in the Leopol- 

 dinicB described by Martins ; whereas in the genus Attalea, the 

 male flowers have from ten to twenty four free stamens; and the fruit 

 is a drupe, loith a stony putamen. The fruits of the Piassaba have 

 the peculiar dull blood-colour, the compresso-globose form (though 

 less compressed than in L. minor), and the gibbosity at the base 

 (like that of the fruits of some Sapindi) which characterize all the 

 species of Leopoldinia known to me*. The long beard of the 

 petioles, extending to the very ground, except in the tallest speci- 

 mens, where the lower part decays and falls away, and the crown 



* The fruits of the Leopoldinia are called "flavo-virentes" by Martins, who, 

 it is plain, had not seen them fully ripe. 



