MR. E. SPRUCE ON LEOPOLDINIA PIASSABA. 59 



of long widely -arched fronds, with the lower part of the rachis 

 destitute of pinnse for a length of nearly 5 feet, give to the Pias- 

 saba an aspect sui generis, and render it one of the most striking 

 and handsome of the noble family of palms. This beard is the 

 membrane which envelopes the frond in its folded-up state, and 

 which in most palms falls away entirely when the frond expands, 

 or remains attached in fragments to the margin and apex of the 

 pinnse. The other species of Leopoldinia have the stem " fibril- 

 litio reticulato circumtextus" — sheathed with the persistent peti- 

 ole-bases, which do not terminate in a pendulous beard, as in L. 

 Fiassaba. In tall specimens this net-work falls away, especially 

 in L. major, Wallace*. 



It is plain in all Leopoldinia that the sarcocarp of the fruit cor- 

 responds to the sheathing base of the petiole, as it consists of the 

 same interlacing woody or horny fibres, only on a smaller scale 

 and more compact. The sarcocarp of L. Piassdba differs from 

 that of the other species of Leopoldinia in having several inner 

 layers of slender brown interlaced fibres, which correspond to the 

 beard of the petiole. 



As Martins had not seen his Leopoldinice in all stages of their 

 growth, the delicate fugacious spathes escaped his notice, and he 

 describes the genus as spatheless, which would be an anomaly 

 among palms. In reality, all the species have two very thin fusi- 

 form brown spathes, which fall away at an early stage, long before 

 the flowers are fully formed. I have good specimens of those of 

 L. minor, Mart. 



The ascertained distribution of the Piassaba palm is from the 

 river Padauiri (a large tributary of the Hio Negro, entering on 

 the left bank) on the south, to the cataracts of the Orinoco on 

 the north ; and from near the Japura on the west, to the sources 

 of the Pacimoni on the east. Its place of growth is in low sandy 

 flats, where the water stands to a slight depth in rainy weather, 

 but it avoids the swamps and the gapos in which the Mauritias 

 and Euterpes delight. It is mostly found far away from the 

 banks of the rivers ; and I have seen but a single plant in such a 

 locality, namely, just within the lower mouth of the Casiquiare, 



* L. major is a many-stemmed palm — I have coimted as many as twenty - 

 four stems from one root ; and by this character alone it may be distinguished 

 from the other species of the genus, all of which have sohtary stems. SeedHng 

 plants often form wide strips on the edge of sandy islands of the Eio Negro. 

 In this state I have mistaken them, at a distance, for a species of Pariana — a 

 genus of grasses well known to have considerable affinity to the palms. 



