FLORA VITIENSIS. 275 
There can also be little doubt that the Palm which F. D. Bennett (* A Whaling Voyage round the 
Globe :’ London, 1840, p. 345), found in the Marquesas Islands; and calls Corypha umbraculifera is the 
same of which Forster saw a leaf. “This Palm," says Bennett, “so truly Oriental in its appearance, 
does not obtain at any of the Polynesian Islands we visited, except Santa Christina, Marquesas, where 
there are several topes, or groves, of the species growing in the interior of the valleys. The natives call it 
' Vahána. It resembles the common Fan Palm, or Palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis), of the East Indies, 
and attains the height of thirty-five feet. The trunk is slender, has a white bark, and bears at the summit 
a tuft of broad fan-shaped leaves, from the base of which hang clusters of small globular nuts. The dried 
leaves have uniformly a yellow colour; they are applied by the Marquesans only to aristocratic purposes, as 
coverings for the huts or burial- places of their chiefs ; although they do not refuse to sell them to European 
sailors, who value them, under the name of ‘ trab,’ for the manufacture of hats. The kernel of the nuts is 
eaten as a native delicacy.” Bennett adds that it also grows in Timor, and is there used for making toddy, 
but in this instance he probably confounds Pritchardia with the true Corypha umbraculifera of Linneus. 
Langsdorff also found this Palm in the Marquesas, but I am not aware whether any specimens were pre- 
served. It is a singular ethnological fact, that throughout the Polynesian Islands this Palm is held to be 
exclusively the property of the aristocracy, and not allowed to be devoted to common purposes by the lower 
classes, like the species which it so much resembles. 
ExPrANATION OF Prare LXXIX., representing Pritchardia pacifica. Fig. 1, a leaf (much reduced) ; 
2, spathe and spadix (much reduced); 3, portion of spadix (mat. size); 4, flower; 5, calyx; 6, corolla; 
7, petal; 8, stamens and pistil; 9 and 10, stamens ; li, pistil; 12, portion of branch with ripe fruit; 13, 
drupe ; 14, the same after the outer rind has been removed; 15, section of the same; 16, albumen 
with embryo cavity and hilum; 17, 18, 19, different sections of the same; Fig. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 
13-19, magnified. 
. V. Cocos, Linn. Gen. n. 1223; Endl. Gen. n. 1772. Flores monoici, in eodem spadice, spatha 
simplici lignosa, fusiformi v. clavata, ventre aperta et lanceolata cincto sessiles, bracteati; d in parte 
superiore oo, 9 in inferiore frequentiores. Fl. 3: Calyx 3-phyllus, foliolis lanceolatis carinatis, basi 
sepius connatis. Corolla 3-petala, petalis membranaceis v. carnosiusculis, erectis v. conniventibus. 
Stamina 6, e toro basilari ; filamenta subulata, subæquilonga ; antherze lineares, subsagittate, erectze. 
Ovarii rudimentum minimum v? 0. Fl.9: Calyx 3-phyllus, foliolis suborbicularibus v. ovatis, 
imbricato-convolutis; corolla 3-petala, petalis membranaceis suborbicularibus imbricato-convolu- 
tis, ut plurimum calyce inclusis. Ovarium ovatum v. depresso-globosum, loculis 2 rudimentariis 
l-loculare. Stylus brevissimus v. 0 ; stigmata 3, pyramidato-triquetra, primum conniventia, demum 
revoluta. Drupa ovata elliptica v. ovato-subtrigona, 1-sperma, mesocarpio crasso fibroso, putamine 
osseo, basi 3-poroso. Albumen æquabile v. obsolete radiatum, amygdalinum v. cartilagineum. Em- 
bryo intra porum basilaris.—Palm:e; caudice excelso v. mediocri, inermi, annulato v. cicatricato, 
interdum nonnihil flexuoso, sepius petiolorum basibus persistentibus squamato v. coronato, intus 
molli, spongioso ; frondibus omnibus terminalibus, szepius vastis, pinnatis, petiolis basi fibroso-pannosa 
amplexicaulibus, nonnunquam  spinoso-serratis, pinnis reduplicatis, ssepius aggregatis, subrecto- 
patentibus v. crispis, crassiuscule membranaceis, glabris; spadicum inter bases frondium exteriorum 
. sessilium patentium rhachi teretiuscula, scrobiculata, in ramos plurimos simplices divisa; spatha 
mucronata, dorso longitudinaliter sulcata ; floribus masculis ochroleucis v. flavescentibus, femineis 
virescentibus, fructibus quandoque maximis, sicciusculis, viridibus, fuscis v. rubro-flavescentibus. 
l. C. nucifera, Linn. Fl. Zeyl. p. 391; Mart. Hist. Palm. p. 23. t. 62, 75, 88. fig. 3-6; t. 100, 
fig. 4; caudice flexuoso, ineequaliter annulato, basi inerassato; frondibus patentibus, segmentis 
lineari-lanceolatis acuminatis, subconcinnis; floribus 9 subglobosis; drupis maximis, ovato-trigonis 
v. subglobosis. Nomen vernac. Vitiense, * Niu dina."—Common on the coasts of most Vitian 
Islands (Seemann!) Also throughout tropical Polynesia, and the littoral parts of tropical Asia, 
Africa, and America. 
The Cocoa-nut is now found in every part of the tropics, though never much beyond them, chiefly on 
