PALMA, SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 37 
SABAL. 
FLoweErs perfect; calyx cupular, unequally 3-lobed; corolla 3-lobed; stamens 6, 
dilated and united at the base; ovary superior, 3-celled; ovules basilar, erect. Fruit 
baccate, globose, or 2 or 3-lobed. Spadix short or elongated, compound, interfoliar. 
Leaves alternate, flabellate, orbicular, or cuneate at the base, petiolate, the petioles 
unarmed. 
Sabal, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 495 (1763). — Endlicher, Gen. ii. 922. — Drude, Engler & Prantl Pflanzenfam. ii. pt. 
253. — Meisner, Gen. 357. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. ii. 37. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. xiii. 313. 
Unarmed trees or shrubs, with columnar and often stout or short annulated endogenous stems 
ascending while young from a subterranean thickened descending clavate caudex, clothed above for 
many years with the remnants of the sheathing bases of the petioles of the fallen leaves, and below 
with light red-brown rind, and long stout tough roots, which ultimately often form a great densely 
matted ball at the base of a short underground stem. Leaves terminal, induplicate in vernation, 
alternate, flabellate, orbicular, or cuneate at the base, tough and coriaceous, divided from the apex 
deeply or slightly into many narrow two-parted long-pointed segments plicately folded at the base, 
inserted obliquely on the ‘sides of the rachis, often filamentose on the thickened margins, with narrow 
midribs prominent below, and numerous slender straight veins; rachises on the lower surface rounded 
and broadly winged toward the base, nearly flat and wingless toward the apex, and gradually narrowed 
to above the middle of the blade of the leaf, thin and acute on the upper surface ; ligulas adnate to the 
rachises, short or elongated, acute, concave, with thin incurved entire margins; petioles rounded on the 
back, biconcave with a central ridge on the upper side toward the apex, their margins acute, unarmed, 
concave and enlarged at the base into elongated chestnut-brown lustrous vaginas of stout tough fibres ; 
juvenile leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, gradually narrowed into slender petioles, entire. Spadix 
axillary, pedunculate, elongated, decompound, at first erect, its rachis compressed and flattened 
horizontally ; primary branches short and pendulous or decurved, angled or compressed, bearing 
numerous slender densely flowered secondary branches in the axils of ovate apiculate scarious persistent 
bracts; spathes numerous, the outer acuminate, inclosing the spadix in the bud, persistent on its 
peduncle, becoming hard and woody at maturity; the second tubular, conspicuously veined, thick and 
firm in texture, scarious and oblique at the apex, prolonged on the lower side into a long narrow 
point, infolding the base of the rachis, each branch with its short thin spathe and the node of the 
rachis below it inclosed in a smaller although otherwise similar spathe. Flowers perfect, minute, 
glabrous, white or greenish white, solitary on the ultimate branches of the spadix, bibracteolate,in the 
axils of minute ovate acute persistent bracts. Calyx tubular, truncate at the base, unequally three-lobed, 
the lobes slightly imbricated in estivation, acute. Corolla deeply three-lobed, narrowed at the base into 
a short tube, the lobes ovate-oblong, concave, acute, in the bud slightly imbricated below, valvate at the 
apex. Stamens six, those opposite the petals rather longer than the others; filaments white, subulate, 
dilated at the base, united into a shallow cup adnate to the tube of the corolla; anthers ovate, acute, 
bright yellow, attached on the back, introrse, two-celled, the cells free and spreading at the base, 
opening longitudinally. Ovary superior, sessile, composed of three carpels, three-lobed, three-celled, 
gradually narrowed into an elongated three-lobed columnar style, truncate and stigmatic at the apex, 
becoming subbasilar on the fruit ; ovule solitary in each cell, basilar, erect, semianatropous ; micropyle 
superior, extrorse. Fruit small, baccate, globose, or obovate and gradually narrowed below, black and 
