Beccari. — A New South Polynesian Palm. 49 



Rhopalostylis Wendl. et Drude. 



Wendl. et Drude in Linnaea, xxxi (1875), 180, t. 1, f. 2 (the ovary) ; 

 Drude in Bot. Zeit., 1877, t. 6, f. 18-21 (anatomy of the ovary) ; 

 Benth. et Hook., Gen. PI. iii, 890. Kentia and Areca of several 

 authors. 



Arboreous unarmed palms. Stem marked with annular rings or scars 

 left by the dead fallen leaves. Leaves pinnate, furnished with a 1 ng basal 

 sheathing part. Leaflets narrow and elongate, acuminate, slightly falcate 

 at apex, 3-costulate, and with several distinct secondary nerves ; their 

 margins acute (not thickened by a marginal nerve). Spadix infrafoliar, 

 briefly stalked, enveloped by 2 complete similar papyraceous or mem- 

 branous deciduous spathes ; the outermost 2-winged. Flowering branches 

 i hick, closely and deeply scrobiculate. Flowers in glomerules of 3 (one male 

 between two females) from the base up nearly to the apices of the branches. 

 Male flowers opening somewhat before the female ones, asymmetrical; 

 sepals subulate, entirely free, slightly imbricate at the base ; petals valvate, 

 almost entirely free, more or less obliquely lanceolate, or ovate. Stamens 6, 

 free, their filaments filiform, inflected at apex ; anthers linear or linear- 

 sagittate, versatile, dorsifixed. Rudimentary ovary conspicuous, columnar 

 or subclavate. Female flowers globose-ovoid; sepals broadly imbricate; 

 petals slightly longer than the sepals, convolutive-imbricate in their very 

 broad basal part, and having very brief valvate apices ; ovary ovoid, 

 unicelled ; ovule attached all along one side of the cell ; stigmas triangular, 

 short, at first connivent, later recurved ; staminodes minute. Fruit small, 

 globular-ovoid or elliptical, symmetrical, bearing the remains of the stigmas 

 exactly on the apex. The whole pericarp thin ; the epicarp furnished with 

 very minute linear fibres (sclerosomes) ; the mesocarp very slightly fleshy 

 and furnished with a few rows of rigid fibres ; the endocarp very thin, 

 cartilaginous. Seed globular, ovate, or ellipsoid, attached all along one side 

 of the endocarpal cavity, and marked with a conspicuous hilum, running 

 from the apical chalaza down to the base, in close proximity to the embryo ; 

 vascular branches of the raphe very slightly anastomosing, starting mostly 

 from the chalaza, running down the ventral side of the seed, and only a 

 very few starting from the sides of the raphe ; albumen homogeneous. 

 Embryo basal. 



The generic name Rhopalostylis was proposed by H. "Wendland and 

 Oscar Drude for the two palms of the Southern Hemisphere known by the 

 old names of Areca sapida and A. Baueri. The genus Rhopalostylis is now re- 

 presented by three species, which form a small but well-characterized group : 

 it is somewhat related to the true genus Kentia, as understood by me (see 

 Webbia, iv, 1913, p. 143) ; but perhaps even more to the genus Actinokentia 

 of U. Dammer (Kentiopsis divaricata A. Brongn., a palm indigenous to New 

 Caledonia), on account of its ovule attached all along one side of its cell ; 

 of its symmetrical fruit, having the remains of the stigmata exactly on the 

 apex ; and of its seed being marked with a conspicuous hilum. running 

 from apex to base, and with homogeneous albumen and basilar embryo. 



Rhopalostylis sapida from New Zealand and R. Baueri from Norfolk 

 Island are two palms very well characterized and distinct, but have a some- 

 what uncertain synonymy, and have been frequently confounded, or con- 

 sidered as representing one species only. Martins himself has apparently, 

 in his description of Areca sapida, cumulated the characteristics of the 

 palm of New Zealand with those of the Norfolk Island palm ; but the fine 



