Botanical Society of London. 153 



a young female Mastodon in which the obliteration of the tusks had 

 not been completed. 



A lower jaw without tusks, considered by Dr. Hays to have been 

 a young Mastodon, but with " the chin slightly broken, so that it is 

 impossible to determine whether it had the foliated termination so 

 conspicuous in the adult;" Mr. Owen remarks, that notwithstanding 

 the prominent end of the symphysial part containing the chief por- 

 tion of the tusk-socket is wanting, yet " two foramina are recognized 

 at the anterior part of the chin," and these, he observes, must be 

 either portions of the alveoli of the tusks, or the canals of the nerves 

 and vessels for the tusks in these alveoli. 



Thus, Mr. Owen says in conclusion, all the examples which seemed 

 to show that the genus Mastodon at no period of life possessed tusks 

 in the lower jaw, and that the genus Tetracaulodon was characterized 

 at all periods of life by two projecting tusks in the lower jaw, become 

 invalidated on a close inspection, and enter into the series of facts 

 which support the proposition that the Mastodon giganteum has two 

 lower tusks originally in both sexes, and retains the right lower tusk 

 only in the adult male. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



November 18th, 1842. — Adam Gerard, Esq., in the Chair. 



A paper was read from George Clarke, Esq., of the Island of Mahe, 

 on the Lodoicea Sechellarum* . The Lodoicea of Sechelles is an inter- 

 tropical plant peculiar to the Sechelles Archipelago, where it grows 

 naturally in two islands only, Praslin and Curiense. Praslin lies north- 

 east of Mahe, distant twenty-one miles; Curiense to the north of 

 Praslin, and is much smaller; a deep arm of the sea, from one to two 

 miles in breadth, separates these two islands. They lie between 4° 

 15' and 4° 21' S. lat. and 55° 39' and 55° 47' E. long. In the other 

 islands of this Archipelago there are but few Lodoiceas, which have 

 all been planted, and only two or three appear to thrive. The trunk 

 or stem of the Lodoicea is straight, and runs to the height of eighty 

 or ninety feet, terminated by a splendid crown of winged, palmated 

 leaves ; it is only from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, and so 

 flexible that it waves to the slightest breeze. When the wind is 

 moderately strong the huge leaves of this giant palm are clashed to- 

 gether with an astonishing noise. The outside of the stem is very 

 hard and compact, but the interior is soft and fibrous. The leaves, 

 winged and palmated, open like a fan, and in the early growth^re 

 more than fifteen feet long, without reckoning the foot-stalk, which 

 is as much more. In the mature trees the leaf- stalk is not more 

 than eight or ten feet long ; and the whole leaf does not exceed 

 twenty feet in length by ten or twelve in breadth, and is entirely 

 destitute of thorns. 



The nascent leaves are enveloped, till the period of their expan- 

 sion, by a thick covering of cottony down of a nankeen colour ; but 

 this is occasionally wanting. The unanimous testimony of the in- 



[* A very interesting account of this plant by Mr. Clarke, illustrated by 

 wood-cuts, will be found at p. 408, vol. vi. of this Journal. — Eds.] 



