PALM^ 



105 



ridged ou the lower surface, tomentose while young, pale blue-green, 3-4 long. 

 Flowers: spadix usually about 6 long, spreading and gracefully incurved, with 

 spathes more or less coated with hoary tomentum, large compressed primary 

 branches, and short bright orange-colored flower-bearing branches. Flowers on short 

 thick disk-like pedicels, about -|' long, white, slightly fragrant, with a tubular 

 perianth, the lobes broadly ovate and acute, stamens with nearly triangular filaments 

 united at the base, and a flat stigma. Fruit Jg' to nearly l' in diameter; seeds 

 brown, y^ in diameter, penetrated only to the middle by the basal cavity. 



A tree, with a stem often 25 high and 10'-14' in diameter, raised on a base 

 of thick matted roots 2-3 high and 18'-20' in diameter, and a broad head of 

 leaves, the upper erect, the lower pendulous and closely pressed against the stem. 



Distribution. Dry sandy soil close to the beach on the north side of the largest 

 of the Marquesas Keys, and on Crab Key, a small island to the westward of Torch 

 Key, one of the Bahia Honda group, Florida; on the Bahamas. 



3. Thrinax microcarpa, Sarg. Silver-top Palmetto. Brittle Thatch. 



Leaves 2-3 across, pale green above, silvery white below, more or less thickly 

 coated while young with hoary tomentum, especially on the lower surface, divided 



near the base almost to the rachis, with orbicular thick concave ligules lined with 

 a thick coat of white tomentum; their petioles thin and flexuose. Flowers: spadix 

 elongated, with short compressed erect branches slightly spreading below, numerous 

 slender pendulous flower-bearing branches, and long acute spathes deeply parted 

 at the apex, coriaceous and coated above the middle with thick hoary tomentum. 

 Flowers on short thick disk-like pedicels, with a cupular perianth, the lobes broadly 

 ovate and acute, stamens with thin nearly triangular exserted filaments slightly 

 united at the base and oblong anthers becoming reversed and extrorse at maturity, 

 and a deep orange-colored ovary narrowed above into a short thick style dilated 

 into a large funnel-formed stigma. Fruit globose, i' in diameter; seeds subglobose, 

 bright to dark chestnut-brown, depressed, penetrated nearly to the middle by the 

 broad basal cavity. 



A tree, rarely more than 30 high, with a trunk 8'-10' in diameter. 



Distribution. Dry coral soil, on the shores of Sugar Loaf Sound, and on No 

 Name and Bahia Honda kevs, Florida. 



