PALM FAMILY. 463 



CXXXII. PALMACEjE, PALM FAMILY. 



Tree-like or bushy, with thick woody trunk-like stem, grow- 

 ing from the terminal bud, and a spadix of small perfect or 

 imperfect flowers ; sepals and petals each 3, distinct or con- 

 nate; stamens usually 6, in 2 series, opposite the sepals and 

 petals; staminodia sometimes present; ovary free, 1-7-celled 

 (commonly 3-celled), sometimes lobed or divided into nearly 

 separate carpels ; fruit a berry, or a dry or more or less fleshy 

 drupe. There are three genera in our region (more in extreme 

 S. Florida). 



* Style or stigma from the base of the ovary. 



1. SABAL. Flowers perfect. Ovary 3-lobed, the style short, stigma truncate. Spadix 



long-branching, glabrous, longer and shorter than the leaves. Either low or tall spe- 

 cies of fan-palms, without spines. 



* * Style or stigma from the top of the ovary. 



2. RHAPIDOPHYLLTJM. Flowers polygaino-dkeeious, the segments imbricated in the 



bud. Carpels free, the stigmas sessile and distinct. Spadix branching and densely 

 flowered, small, short-peduncled. Low palms, with fan-like, long-stalked leaves and 

 dry spiny sheaths. 



3. SEREN^EA. Flowers perfect, the segments valvate. Carpels free at the base, the style 



one, long and slender. Spadix long and branching, densely tomentose, much shorter 

 than the leaves. Stem creeping. Leaves fan-like. No spines. 



1. SABAL, PALMETTO. (Name unexplained.) 



S. Palmetto, Rcem. & Schult. CABBAGE PALMETTO. Of the sandy 

 coast from N. Car., S., our only tree palm ; stem 20-40 high, erect and 

 simple, leafy at the summit, the petiole smooth ; leaves 5-8 long, cor- 

 date in outline, pinnatifid, and recurved at the summit, with thread-like 

 filaments in the sinuses ; drupe globose ; spadix spreading, mostly shorter 

 than the leaves. 



S. Adansdnii, Guerns. DWARF PALMETTO. Leaves rising from a stem 

 underground, smooth-edged, and circular in outline, slightly pinnatifid, 

 glaucous, with a few filaments in the sinuses, the petiole smooth ; fruit 

 globose ; spadix erect and much longer than the leaves. Low districts, 

 N. Car., S. 



2. RHAPIDOPHYLLUM. (Greek: Ehapis-leaved, from its resem- 

 blance to the genus Rhapis.) 



R. (or CHAM^UOPS) Hystrix, Wendl. & Drude. BLUE PALMETTO. 

 S. Car., S.; stems erect or creeping, only 2-3 long ; leaves pale or glau- 

 cous, 3-4 high, circular in outline, with numerous 2-4-toothed divis- 

 ions, the petiole rough-edged ; spathes oblong and woolly ; drupe ovoid. 

 The only species. 



3. SERENAS A. (Named for Sereno Watson, late curator of the Gray 

 Herbarium, Cambridge, Mass.) 



S. serrulata, Hook. f. SAW PALMETTO. Trunk creeping on the 

 ground ; short petioles spiny-margined, whence the popular name ; leaves 

 circular, with 15-30 erect slightly cleft divisions and no thread-like fila 



