PAL3VLE 



101 



to the ligule, with much-thickened bright orange-colored midribs ana margins, pale yellow- 

 green and lustrous on the upper surface, bright silvery white and coated at first on the 

 lower surface with hoary deciduous pubescence, with a thin undulate obtusely short-pointed 

 dark orange-colored rachis, and a thin concave crescent-shaped often oblique slightly un- 

 dulate short-pointed and light or dark orange-colored ligule f wide, \' deep; petioles 

 slender, pale yellow-green, 2|-3 long. Flowers: spadix 18'-24' long, with flattened 

 stalks, slender much-flattened primary branches 8'- 10' long, light orange-colored slen- 

 der terete flower-bearing branches l|'-3' long, and pale reddish brown spathes coated 

 toward the ends with pale pubescence; flowers opening in June and irregularly also in 

 the autumn on ridged spreading pedicels ' long, with an orange-colored ovary surmounted 

 by an elongated style dilated into a rose-colored stigma. Fruit ripening at the end of six 



Fig. 98 



months, from |'-f in diameter, bright green at first when fully grown, becoming deep vio- 

 let color, with succulent very juicy flesh, ultimately black and lustrous; seed light tawny 

 brown. 



A tree, with a stem slightly enlarged from the ground upward, 15-25 high, 4'-6' thick, 

 covered with pale blue rind, and surmounted by a broad head of leaves at first erect, then 

 spreading and ultimately pendulous. Wood used for the piles of small wharves and turtle- 

 crawls. The soft tough young leaves are made into hats and baskets. 



Distribution. Dry coral ridges and sandy flats from the shores of Bay Biscayne along 

 many of the southern keys to the Marquesas group (var. marquesensis Becc.) Florida; 

 and on the Bahamas (var. macrosperma Becc.). 



3. SABAL Adans. Palmetto. 



Unarmed trees, with stout columnar stems covered with red-brown rind. Leaves fla- 

 bellate, tough and coriaceous, divided into many narrow long-pointed parted segments 

 plicate ly folded at base, often separating on the margins into narrow threads; rachis 

 extending nearly to the middle of the leaves, rounded and broadly winged toward the 

 base on the lower side, thin and acute on the upper side; ligule adnate to the rachis, 

 acute, concave, with thin incurved entire margins; petioles rounded and concave on the 

 lower side, conspicuously ridged on the upper side, acute and entire on the margins, with 

 elongated chestnut-brown shining sheaths of stout fibres. Spadix interfoliar, stalked, 

 decompound, with a flattened stem, short branches, slender densely flowered ultimate 

 branches, and numerous acuminate spathes, the outer persistent and becoming broad and 



