*8 HORTUS J AM AT C EN SIS: p.u.mktO 



PARVIFLORA. SMA1 L-FLOWF.RED. 



PzhtiS Brasiliensis primifera folio plicatili sen flabetiiformi caudire- 

 Cijujmmato. Sloane, v. 2, p. 121. Palmacea, foliis Jlabellifovmi^ 

 bus cum appcndu'iila ad i:num, petiolisie-nuior:bus jlailibus com- 

 pressis. Browne, p, 19Q. 

 Trunk from ten to twenty feet high, swelling at the base, unarmed, about six inches 

 in diameter, of a clay colour. Fronds-terminating, palmate, plaited, from one to two- 

 feet long, or more, with .here and there prickles ; divisions lanceolate, aerved, and 

 marked with lines, rigid, almost equal : stipes.tanger tuan the leaves, round- Hatted, 

 smooth, flexile, unarmed. Spadix terminating, almost upright, two or three feet 

 long; panicle branched; branches alternate, sub-divided, spreading : branchlets or 

 spikes decussated, opposite, or in threes ; flowers pedicelled, opposite, or in threes, 

 placed on the tachis, small, hermaphrodite; berry roundish, the size of a 'small pea, 

 almost 'priceless; kernel white within, red in the middle. It grows in most of the 

 honey-comb rocks in the island. 



Pal 'mclo- Royal '.This tree covers whole fields in many parts of the island : it grows 

 Loth in the rocky lulls, and low moist piains near the sea, but seems to thrive best in 

 the former. It shoots by a simple stalk, and rises generally from four or five, to ten or 

 fourteen,- feet in height. It is always furnished with leaves of the form of a fan, sus- 

 tained by slender compressed footstalks, and bears a great abundance of small berries, 

 which serve to feed both the birds and beasts of firewood, when tiny are in season. 

 The. trunk seldom exceeds four or five inches in-diameters it is called the iEaUhpole, 

 ?md i> much used for piles in wharfs, and other buildings made in the sea ; for it has 

 been observed to stand the water very well, and is never corroded or touched by the 

 worms. The footstalks of the leaves are very tjugh, and serve {when split and paved) 

 to make baskets, bowstrings, ropes, and a tliousand other conveniencies, whore- 

 strength and. toughness is required. The leaves are called thatch, and are dailv used 

 as such, and found to stand the weather for many years. lirounc. 



PALMETO, SMALLER. CHAM,ROPS. 



CL. 23, OR. 2. Polygamia dioccia. Nat. or. Palnitr. 



This generic name is derived from two Greek ..orJs signifying low shrub. 



>fn. chak Hermaphrodite calyx universal snathe compressed, bifid; spadix 

 branching ; proper perianth tripartite, very small ; corolla tripartite ; petals ovate, 

 coriaceous, erect, acute, inflected at the tip; stamens six filaments, subulate- 

 compressed, scares cohering at the base ; anthers linear, twLn,-growing to the in- 

 terior side of the filaments ; the pistiUius three .roundish germs ; stvles as many... 

 distinct, permanent; stigmas acute; the. pericarp three drupes, globose, unilo- 

 cular; seeds solitary, globose Male on a distinct plant, flowering in the same 

 manner cal) x anu corolla as in t ( ie hermaphrodite; stamens, a gibbous recep- 

 tacle, ending. in six. -filaments, not m irked bj perforations j the rest as in the her- 

 maphrodite. . One specie* u a native of Jamaica, 



BPMIMfr 



