68 OPENING OF PALM SPATHES WITH AN AUDIBLE REPORT. 
*Bonplandia.’ This, and only this, I have attempted to do in the fol- 
lowing compilation; and in hopes that residents in tropical countries 
may be induced to furnish us with the more positive information we 
require. I will only add, that when this discussion was first com- 
menced, it was not noticed that the Palm at Kew, going under the 
name of Seaforthia elegans, and figured in the * Botanical Magazine,’ 
t. 4961, was not that of Brown, but a very different species, which 
Herm. Wendland has named Ptychosperma Cunninghami, the generic 
name of La Billardiére (Ptychosperma) having the right of priority 
over that of R. Brown (Seaforthia). By the courtesy of Mr. M‘Nab 
I am enabled to establish the identity of the Edinburgh and Kew 
plant, and in the following articles the correct nomenclature has 
been adopted. The old plant at Kew was received from Allan Cun- 
ningham in 1825, and is supposed to have been obtained at the 
Illawarra district; so it is probably the same mentioned by him as 
having been found there in his first visit (in 1818), and of which he . 
says in his journal: “a Palm which I suspect is the tropical Seqforthia” 
(Conf. Heward's Biogr. Sketch). It is doubtful whether the genuine — 
Ptychosperma Seaforthia, Miq. (Seaforthia elegans, R. Brown) is as yet 
in any of our gardens. That of the Crystal Palace is also P. Cunning- 
hami. ln confirmation that the Kew plant came from Illawara, my 
father says that when Allan Cunningham was describing its appearance 
and height, he told him that upon one of his excursions in that district 
he pitched his tent under a very lofty tree of Seaforthia standing singly, 
which from its great height and conspicuous position served as a land- 
mark to guide him to his encampment ; but that one day, when return- — 
ing in the direction of his tent, he could not see the tree ; and that when — 
reaching the spot, he found it lying full length upon the ground, the | 
natives having cut it down, much to his indignation, for the sake of its 
cabbage, which was then in the pot boiling for his dinner !* 
of P. Seaforthia, made by Bauer and 
and paten 
gracefully drooping, purplish, and with flowers arranged in ra. 
n € hy 
the male flowers are ob ong-obtuse iu P. Seaforthia, ovate-acute in P. Cunninghami. — 
The stamens are twenty-four in number, the filaments white and much longer than 
the petals, and the anthers linear in P. Se, forthia 
mens are only eighteen in number, the filaments p 
representing Ptychosperma Cunning- — 
P made 
EM Ea E I aN El ce act Py e 
