iSO PALMS OF THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON. 



6 digitiformes ad medium fisso ; fructibus globoais 

 magnitudine pisi minoris. 



Hal. — Ad fi. Tarunia prope Manaos, et ad fl. Mar- 

 nollos braohium il. Madeira. 

 Var. major (Trail lib. Palm., 144). — Foliis '90'" et supra, 

 pinnis •38"'-*45'" x "OG™ ; venis primariis utrim^ue 

 19-20; spadicibus •225'" et supra, ramos 12-14 

 infiraos 2-4 fidos edentibus. 



Hab. — Ad Coary in prov. " Amazonas." 



Obs. 1. — G. Spruceana, mihi, as may be seen from 

 the above description, includes several forms of which 

 well-marked specimens seem very distinct, but the 

 connecting links are so close and continuous as to 

 render it impossible to rank them as distinct species, 

 and I am by no means sure that they deserve even 

 the rank of subspecies, though they may be divided 

 into two groups by the staminal tube in the female 

 flower, the first including Sprueca^ia proper and 

 intermedia, the second (in which the tube is split into 

 six lobes from the first, and spreads outside the 

 corolla during flowering) compta and tuberculata 

 (Spruce). In absence of ? flowers the form 

 tuberctilata is hardly distinguishable I'rom Spniceana, 

 var. micra ; and tubercvlata, var. major, is then iden- 

 tical in appearance with typical Spruceana. The 

 forms intermedia and compta also can hardly be dis- 

 tinguished from one another in some cases. 



Obs. 2. — Geonoma rectifolia, Wallace (Palms of the 

 Amazon, p. 67, t. xxxv.), may be a form of Spniceana 

 mihi, but I do not quote it as a synonym, owing to 

 the figure and description representing the median 

 pinnaj as broad as the basal and apical, instead of 

 linear, the spadices small and simply branched, and 

 the fruits globular ; the last two characters would 

 seem to point to G. tiiberculata, Spruce. 



Obs. 3. — G. Spnfceatia, subsp. compta, is very 

 close to G. Negrcnsis, Spruce, from which it is dis- 

 tinguished by the linear pinnae being 5-veined in 

 the latter, 3 -veined in the former. 



10. Cata-ptkoxoma ? BOBUSTA, sp. n. (Trail hb. Palm., 186). 

 — Caudice solitario crecto SSO^-S-O"' x •035"'-0.30™, ob- 

 scure sed crebre annulato ; foliis 12-14 contemporaneis ad 

 apicem caudicis, subhorizontaliter patentibus 2-0"'-2-3™, 

 pinnatisectis ; petiolo "TS"' supra piano, subtus acute 

 carinato, glabro ; vagina 'IS'" in opus fibrosura retiforme 

 producta ; pinnis 6-G (-7) jugis oppositis, raro altemis, 

 lanceolato-rhomboideis vix subfaleatis, tenui-acuminatis, 

 basalibus -GS"' x -OG'", mediis wC'-^S'" x •075'"--120'", 

 ajncalibus "60 X •075'"-'120'" ; venis primariis utrinque 

 37-39, -009'" dissitis, medio rectis'angulum 20''-G0° cum 

 costa efformantibus, subtus unacum petiolo et costa furfure 



