72 PALM TREES 



Genus Desmoncus, Martins. 



Male flowers on the upper parts of the branches of 

 the spadix, females on the lower. Spathe fusiform, 

 woody, at length deciduous. Male flowers with six 

 stamens and linear acute anthers. Female flowers with 

 a short style and three stigmas and six small scaly 

 rudiments of stamens. 



Stems slender, flexible, climbing over shrubs or trees. 

 Leaves alternate, pinnate, much sheathing, with long 

 hooked spines in the place of the three or four terminal 

 pair of leaflets. The spadices are axillary and simply 

 branched, the spathes double, fusiform or ventricose, 

 and the fruits are small, round, and generally red. The 

 stems and leaves are more or less prickly. 



Fourteen species of these curious Palms are found 

 in various parts of South America, principally in the 

 low lands, as they are not known at a greater height 

 than 2000 feet above the level of the sea. They differ 

 remarkably from all other American palms in their long 

 climbing stems, in which they resemble the Calami or 

 Canes so abundant in the East Indies. 



