1908] BRIEFER ARTICLES 145 
The rank of species and variety seems here assigned somewhat arbi- 
trarily, and it may be of interest to give the history of the trees which have 
been taken as their respective types. The palm accepted as typical W. 
juijera is a certain tree in the Garabaldi Garden, at Palermo, Italy, which 
was raised from seed at the Botanical Garden in the same city, in 1874, and 
which began to flower in 1892. The source of the seed is not known. 
Five or six living plants of the Prichardia filifera of his trade catalogue 
were exhibited by LinpEN at the international exhibition at Florence, in 
May, 1873. Three of 
these exhibition plants . 
are now large trees, pro- 
ducing flowers and fruit, 
and these are taken by 
Brccart as the types 
of his W. filifera micro- 
Sperma. As these palms 
are directly traced to 
Linpen, and were exhibited by him as Pri- 
chardia filifera, it would seem probable that 
they are about as near as we are likely to get 
to authentic representatives of WENDLAND’S 
first published species. : 
The flowers of W. robusta Wendl. are Fic. 2—W. filijera ee 
described as having the lobal filaments tuber- = parca pt 
culately enlarged at the coherent base, and eee. dl 3.5- 
abruptly subulate above; stigma bilabiately : 
sParted into three short lobes; ovary turbinate at summit, but neither 
*xcavated nor gibbous. On these grounds Beccarr sustains the specific 
Tank of this palm; and should they prove constant, it may be desirable 
'0 follow this disposition. Fig. 3 is from a flower of a tree in the 
Botanical Garden at Palermo. Its historical identification with the 
Wendlandian plants is not related. The first two characters hold in 
the flowers of Californian trees which have been referred here, so far 
= Concerns the few specimens I have examined. The ovarian character 
'8 less Satisfactory. 
W. gracilis Parish has flowers very near those of the last, except that the 
“mmit of the turbinate ovary is very distinctly 3-lobulate. Fig. 4 was 
tes from a flower taken from Mr. McLeon’s tree, a panicle of oo 1S 
4 Sec of fig. ro of my previous paper. Brccari regards this palm as 
anety of W. robusta. It would be possible, although in my opinion 
