178 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. [M. rumphii 
mixed up and loose in the sheet-covering, and with them are two labels, but it 
is not possible to ascertain to which specimens these labels respectively belong. 
Of the spike-bearing branches some have spinous, and others smooth spathes. 
One of the detached fruits is large, and could belong to M. Rumphüt, as wel as 
to a variety of M. Sagus; several other fruits are very small, and correspond 
exactly to those figured in one of Turpin's plates and they represent the type upon 
which the: var. buruense is established. We remain uncertain, however, if these 
fruits belong to the branches having spinous spathels or to those with the spathes 
smooth. i 
(2) In one of Turpin’s plates, besides the fruit and its analysis (which un. 
questionably belongs to VAR. buruense) is represented not an entire spadix, but one 
of its spike-bearing branches, having spinescent spathes, but we do not know if it 
really belongs to the same variety as the fruits. 
(3) From the analysis of the fruit in the above mentioned plate, it would 
appear that the seed had a ruminate albumen; but this certainly is not the case. 
The fruits collected by Labillardière, although they had attained their definitive size» 
were not thoroughly mature, and the seed they contained was dry and shrivelled, 
and may have had the appearance, on a superficial inspection, ot having a ruminate 
albumen ; but these fruits when restored by appropriate means to their former 
fresh condition, show the normal structure proper to all Metroxylons,—an albumen 
homogeneous, horse-shoe shaped in vertical section, having a large apical chalazal 
cavity, and a basal embryo. This false representation of the seed of Sagus genuina 
in Turpin's Dictionary „has misled Martius, Blume, Miquel, Bentham and Hooker, 
and others. who have considered a ruminate albumen to be a generic character of 
Metroxylon. Drude in “Engler and Prantl’s, Pflanzenfamilien” assigns a ruminate 
seed to Eumetroxylon, and an homogeneous one to his subgenus Celococcus; as a 
matter of fact, however, the seed is absolutely identieal in both. 
(4) Turpin's plate representing the general habit of Sagus genuina is also false, 
the spadices appearing as if they were emerging from the axils of the leaves 
and being much shorter than the leaves; but most certainly all true Metroxylons 
have a definite terminal inflorescence. Probably the artist, not having a flowering 
plant at hand, took as a model a sterile one, and added to it some detached 
spike-bearing branches, received from the natives. 
Turpin's figure has been often reproduced in popular books of Botany contribut- 
ing to give a false idea of the general habit of the Sago tree. 
PLate 107.—Fig. 10.—Metroxylon Rumphii var. buruense Becc.—Fruits collected 
. by Labillardière in Buru (Paris Herbarium) and corresponding to the Sagus genuina 
of that author, figured in Turpin's Dictionary. See also the section of the seed in 
the analytieal Plate VI. fig. 15. 
2g. MEerroxyLon RumPHII var. FLYRIVERENSE Becc. 
Sagus Rumphii in L. M. D'Alberti's " New Guinea 
72 
Appendix. 
DrescgrPTION.— Fruit turbinate, flat above and very minutely beaked, 4 cm. 
long, somewhat irregular by mutual pressure, 33 mm. broad at the uppermost part and 
thence slightly attenuate below ; scales in 18 vertical series, convex, and deeply 
