DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— PALM^. 115 



ble to Sabal by the acuminate rachis, wliicli l)ears on l)otli sides numerous 

 rays enlarging and diverging upward. The rachis is not very distinct, but as 

 far as it can be seen it looks narrowed into a point, or witli an acumen, along 

 which very numerous rays are attached; they descend lower than the acu- 

 men in diverging, as if it had been long and linear. The generic relation of 

 this Palm is therefore uncertain. The very numerous rays, enlarging upward 

 from a narrow base, crowded, pressed upon each others, and folded in their 

 direction, as if the leaf was young and undeveloped, are sharply keeled and 

 distinctly nerved, though narrow; the primary nerves one millimeter apart, 

 have apparently two or three intermediate veinlets, which are slightly dis- 

 cernible. The fruits are probably referable to the same species, as they are 

 not only seen at the base of the leaf, but more numerous still imbedded 

 into the stone. Their form is like that of small obtuse spindles, attached by 

 short pedicels to a loose raceme. These fruits are fifteen millimeters long, 

 five millimeters thick, surrounded by a thin, shelly pericarp, which, more or 

 less distinctly and thinly ribbed lengthwise, is crossed by short wrinkles or 

 splits. They are comparable in form and size to those of some living species 

 oi' Astrocariufn, like A. Sauri, Mart., to which, however, the leaf has no relation. 

 Habitat. — Golden, South Mountain. 



GEONOMITES, Lesqx. 



Frond large, palm<ato-pinnate ; rays connected in the lower part, separating outside, joining the 

 rachis by thoir whole, sometiojes balf-sheathing base, obscurely carinate. 



Geonomites Goldianiis, Lesqz. 

 TX,' Plate ^^, Fig. 9. 



Palmadtes CoWioMMS, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 311. 



Leaves flabellate; rays flat and without carina, joined in an acute angle of divergence, and, by 

 their whole base, to a narrow, linear, flat rachis, with narrow furrows marking line of separat ion ; pri- 

 mary veins generally distinct, with ten intermediate veinlets, sometimes discernible with naked eyes. 



The leaf, represented by one fragmentary specimen only, is subcoria- 

 ceous, the surface being covered by a thick, pellucid, and shining epidermis, 

 ■ which, destroyed in some places, leaves the nervation quite distinct. The 

 primary veins, however, are visible through the epidermis. The rjiys average 

 one and a half centimeters broad, are united, their borders being indicated 

 by a narrow furrow ; fiat, joining the rachis by their whole base, neither nar- 

 rowed nor decurrent to it; their angle of divergence being about 20°. The 

 primary nerves, two and a half millimeters distant, have generally ten inter- 



