680 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



Wallace Palm. Amaz. 76, t. 28-35, 45.— Griseb. FL Brit. W. Tnd. 

 519.— Oerst. Palm. Centro-Americ. 1858, 40, t. 8, 9.— Trail in 

 Trim. Journ. Bot. 1876, 354; 1877, 1, 40, 75, 132, t. 184.— B. 

 Eodr. Enum. Palm. 26.— Drude Fl. Brasil. Ill, II. 316. 



Usually low palms, often cgespitose, but sometimes reaching as 

 mucb as 70 feet ; stem very thin, or thicker and cane-like, always 

 spinous. Leaves often scattered, but chiefly approximate above, 

 pinnatisect, rarely bifid-entire ; segments usually linear, acuminate ; 

 spadix according to the thickness of the stem delicate or stoat, 

 simply branched or simple, axillary, sessile or peduncled ; spathes 2, 

 upper one spinous or bristly-hairj^. Flowers monoecious, small, 

 green, rosa or dark-yellow, in glomerules of 3 and of 2 males in the 

 upper part. Male flowers : calyx tripartite or trifid, sepals acute ; 

 corolla tripetalous, petals acute; stamens 6, 9 or 12, rising from a 

 fleshy disc ; filaments subulate ; anthers linear, erect. Female flowers 

 globose or cylindric ; calyx urceolate or ring-shaped ; corolla 

 urceolate or cylindric, staminodes forming a membranous ring. 

 Ovary ovate or prismatic-trigonous, unilocular by the abortion of 

 2 loculi ; stigmas 3, sessile, pyramidal. Drupe ovate or globose, 

 1 -seeded; putamen roundish or elongate, with 3 pores, the one 

 above the embryo differently located than the two others which 

 are closed. 



Species about 90. — 53 species in Bi*azil, Peru, Bolivia and 

 Guyana; the rest in the Antilles and Central America. 



Cultivation ijst Eueope. — Very ornamental, slender growing 

 stove palms. Some of the species are of easy cultin-e in a compost 

 of loam, peat, leaf mould, and sand, in equal parts ; but most of 

 them are very difficult to treat. Propagation may be effected by 

 seeds or by suckers, which are very freely produced. 



JBACTEIS MAJOR, Jacq. Stirp. Amer. 280, t. 171, f. 2; Mart. Palmet. 

 Orbignian 62.— Drude. Fl. Bras. Ill, I, 358, t. LXXIV,f II.— B. Achcstorha- 

 chis. Mart. Palm. Orbign. 61 ; Trail in Journ. Bot. (1877), 49. — Augustinea 

 major Karst. in Linnsea (1856), 395. — Pyrenoglyphis major Karst. Fl. 

 Columb. spec. sel. 11, 141, t. CLXXIV. 



Vernacular Name. — In Brazil : Coco de vinagre (ex Drude). 



Description. — Stem 1-lf inch in diameter, ceespitose, usually 

 15 feet high, rarely 20 or more, armed near the rings with black 

 retro-curved spines about 2 inches long. Leaves 6-7 forming a 

 terminal crown, 5-7 feet long, equally pinnatisect; sheath short, 

 rhachis slender, elongate, both covered with whitish or fuscous 

 tomentum and armed with spines which are lf-2|^ inches long, 

 black, stout, terete-subulate ; petiole much shorter than the rhachis ; 

 segments 25-35 on each side, one-nerved (the apical ones sometimes 

 many nerved), narrowly linear-lanceolate, long acuminate, f- — 1 foot 

 long and f-^g inch broad, glabrous on both sides, armed along the 

 margins with black bristles, the apex more densely setose. 



