Plate 446. 

 GEONEMA LACERATA. 



The researches of the learned botanist. Dr. Seeman, in 

 Central America, have added considerably to our list of Palms ; 

 and as many of them seem to be calculated for decorative pur- 

 poses, they come at a time when they are more likely to be 

 appreciated, than had they been discovered a few years ago ; 

 for, as we bave already indicated, the taste for these plants has 

 mucb increased of late, and we are evidently taking a lesson 

 from our Continental friends, who have for a long time largely 

 used them. We saw at the establishment of M. Linden, at 

 Brussels (who bas now, we perceive, joined to his own the 

 well-known and liighly-valued establishment of our friend M. 

 Ambrose Verschaffelt, at Ghent), upwards of forty new species, 

 and many of them highly ornamental. 



Geonema lacerata is in the hands of Mr. W. Bull, of King's 

 Road, Chelsea, to whom Dr. Seeman's discoveries have been 

 consigned, and is thus described by him : — " A neat growing 

 stove Palm of distinct character, and apparently of a dwarf 

 habit of growth ; the leafstalks are broad, and sheathing at the 

 base, flattened and slender upwards, and angular on the dorsal 

 side ; the leaf- blades are broad and bilobed with an excurrent 

 thread on the sinus, the lobes (in the young plants) upwards of 

 an inch across, and lacerately split at the apex, while the surface 

 is ribbed so as to appear plicate. Its apparently dense, close 

 habit of growth recommends it as a useful and distinct de- 



