THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 677 



on the right ai^e more characteristic of this species than some on 

 the left as they do not show that thickening about the middle so 

 peculiar to Oreodoxa regia. 



OREODOXA REGIA.— 'Kunth. in Humb. et Bonpl. Nova Gen. et 

 Spec. PI. I. p. 244.-Mart. ; Hist. Nat. Palm. Ilf, 168, t. 156, f. Ill, IV, 

 V.-Griseb. ; Cat. PI. Cub. 222.-Sauvalle ; Fl. Cub. 153.-Combs ; in Trans. 

 Acad. St. Louis, VII (1897) 471, t. Il.-Sargent ; Silva N. A., X, 31, t. 

 DV.-Hemsler ; in Biol. Oentr. Amer. Bot. 401.-Becc. ; Palms, indig. to 

 Cuba, in Pomona College Journ. Econ. Bot. II (1912) 257. — Oreodoxa 

 oleracea (non Mart.) Griseb PL Wright. 531, and PL Cub : Wright, n. 

 UQ7 .—Roystonea regia O. F. Cook, in Bull. Torrey bot. Club, 1901, p. SSI- 

 Names : — English : Royal Palm, Mountain Glory. 



French : Chou franc, Chou palmiste de montagne. 



German : Koenigspalme 



Dutch : Koningspalm, Palmiet. 



In Cuba Palma real. 



Description^ — Stem generallj^ more or less thickened at the 

 middle, but sometimes almost regularly cylindrical from the base 

 nearljr to the summit, unarmed, annulate, 40-60 feet high. Leaves 

 very large ; leaf sheath elongate, tightly enveloping the vegetative 

 cone. Leaflets alternately inserted in contrary ways along the rha- 

 chis, standing in four different planes, at least in its lower and inter- 

 mediate part, but more regularly set and almost in one plane to- 

 wards the end. Rhachis at first more or less sprinkled with small, 

 appressed, orbiciilar, tobacco-coloured, deciduous scales, but be- 

 coming glabrous by age. Leaflets firmly papyraceous, ensiform, 

 quite straight and very gradually narrow above from below the 

 middle, to a very acimiinate, rather rigid, briefly bifid apex, gener- 

 ally more deeply split by age, attached to the rhachis by a narrow 

 base, having here the margins strongly reduplicate, green on both 

 surfaces, on the lower rather densely sprinkled with very numerous, 

 very small dots visible under a strong lens ; midrib strong, very 

 prominent above, covered below by an almost continuous line of 

 elongate chaffy scales j secondary nerves 2-3 on each side of the 

 midrib ; tertiary nerves very numerous and not very prominent ; 

 margins acute, not or very slightly thickened ; transverse veinlets 

 obsolete. Intermediate leaflets 2^ to 3| feet long and If to If inch 

 broad. 



Spathes 2, the exterior one tubular, pervious at its upper end, 

 considerably shorter than the interior one, which completely envelops 

 the spadix before the anthesis, and is at that time flattened-fusiform 

 and biconvex, later deciduous. Of. figure 30. — Spadices 3-4 at the 



(1). We follow almost word for word the description given by Beccari, L c. 



4 



