PALM^ 



113 



erect lobes incurved at the apex; starainodia 6, scale-like, united into a cup adnate to 

 the corolla; ovary subglobose, obscurely 2 or 3-lobed, 2 or 3-celled, gibbous, the cells 

 crowned with a 3-lobed stigma becoming subbasilar on the fruit; ovule ascending. 

 Fruit a short-stalked drupe with thin crustaceous flesh. Seed oblong-reniform, 

 marked by the conspicuous fibrous reticulate branches of the raphe radiating from 

 the narrow basal hilum, and covered with a thin crustaceous coat; embryo minute, 

 cylindrical, lateral, in uniform albumen. 



Roystonea is confined to the tropics of the New World, where two or three species 

 occur. 



The genus as here limited was named for General Roy Stone of the United States 

 army. 



1. Roystonea regia, Cook. Royal Palm. 



(Oreodoxa regia, Silva N. Am. x. 31.) 



Leaves 10-12 long, closely pinnate, the pinnae 2^-3 long, 1^' wide near the 

 base of the leaf, and gradually decreasing in size toward its apex, deep green with 

 slender conspicuous veins, and covered below with minute pale glandular dots, their 

 petioles almost terete, concave near the base, with thin edges separating irregularly 



into pale fibres, and enlarged into bright green cylindrical clasping bases 8 or 9 

 long and more or less covered with dark chafipy scales. Flo"wers : spadix about 2 long, 

 with a nearly terete peduncle and slightly ridged primary and secondary branches 

 compressed above, abruptly enlarged at the base, and simple slender flexuose long- 

 pointed flower-bearing brauchlets 3'-6' long, pendant and closely pressed against 

 the secondary branches. Flowers opening in Florida in January and February, the 

 staminate nearly ^' long and rather more than twice as long as the pistillate. Fruit 

 oblong-obovate, full and rounded at the apex, narrowed at the base, violet-blue, 

 about ^' long, with a thin outer coat and a light red-brown inner coat, loose and 

 fibrous on the outer surface, and closely investing the thin light brown seed. 



A tree, 80-100 high, with a trunk rising from an abruptly enlarged base, grad- 

 ually tapering from the middle to the ends and often 2 in diameter, covered with 

 light gray rind tinged with orange color, marked with dark blotches and irregularly 

 broken into minute plates, the green upper portion 8-10 long, and a broad head 

 of gracefully drooping leaves. Wood of the interior of the stem spongy, pale brown, 



