112 



TKEES OF NORTH AMERICA 



seeds subglobose, somewhat flattened below, with a pale vertical mark on the lower 

 side, and a minute hilum joined to the mieropyle by a pale band. 



A tree, from 30-40 high, with 1 or several clustered erect inclining or occa- 



sionally semiprostrate stems 3' -4' in diameter, covered almost to the ground by 

 the closely clasping bases of the leaf-stalks and below with a thick pale rind. 



Distribution. Low undrained soil covered for many months of every year in 

 water from l'-18' deep, occasionally occupying almost exclusively areas of several 

 acres in extent or more often scattered among Cypress-trees or Royal Palms, in the 

 swamps and along the hummocks adjacent to the Chokoloskee River and its tribu- 

 taries in southwestern Florida. 



6. ROYSTONEA, Cook. Royal Palm. 



Unarmed trees, with massive stems enlarged near the middle, and terminating in 

 long slender bright green cylinders formed by the densely imbricated sheaths of 

 the leaf-stalks. Leaves equally pinnate, with linear-lanceolate long-pointed un- 

 equally cleft plicately-f olded pinnae inserted obliquely on the upper side of the rachis, 

 folded together at the base, with thin midribs and margins; rachises convex on the 

 back, broad toward the base of the leaf and acute toward its apex; petioles semi- 

 cylindrical, gradually enlarged into thick elongated green sheaths. Spadix large, 

 decompound, produced near the base of the green part of the stem, with long 

 pendulous branches and 2 spathes, the outer semicylindrical and as long as the 

 spadix, the inner splitting ventrally and inclosing the branches of the spadix. 

 Flowers monoecious, in a loose spiral, toward the base of the branch in 3-flowered 

 clusters, with a central staminate and smaller lateral pistillate flowers, higher on the 

 branch the staminate in 2-flowered clusters; calyx of the staminate flower of minute 

 broadly ovate obtuse scarious sepals imbricated in the bud, much shorter than the 

 corolla; petals nearly equal, valvate in the bud, ovate or obovate, acute, slightly 

 united at the base, coriaceous; stamens 6, 9, or 12, with subulate filaments united 

 below and adnate to the base of the corolla, and large ovate-sagittate anthers, the 

 cells free below; ovary rudimentary, subglobose or 3-lobed; pistillate flowers much 

 smaller, ovoid-conical; sepals obtuse; corolla erect, divided to the middle into acute 



