THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON. 987 



should be obtained when freshly imported, sown in well-drained 

 pots or pans of sandy loam, and plunged in bottom heat. 



COCCOTHRINAX ARGENTEA, Sargent in Bot. Gaz. XXVII (1899), 

 89. — Beccari, Webbia, II (1907), 317. — Thrinax argentea, Lodd. in Desf. 

 Cat. ed. 3, 31 ; Eoem. et Schult, Syst, Veg. VII, 1300.— Mart. Hist. Nat. 

 Palm., Ill, 256, t. 103, III.— Th. mulliflora, Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. 

 Ill, 255, t. 103, I, a,.— Th. excelsa, Hart., Bot. Mag. t. 7088 ? 



Names. — Silver Thatch Palm, Silver-leaved Palmetto, Guano. 



Description. — Stem reaching up to 40 feet high. Leaves peltate 

 radiate, suborbicular, green above, whitish or almost silvery below, 

 in adult plants divided into about 60 segments down to a little 

 below the middle, in young plants much deeper. Petiole very long 

 and slender, depressed-biconvex with very acute margins ; ligule 

 glabrous, subligneous, broadly subcordale, prolonged in the centre 

 into a triangular acuminate point ; larger segments of adult plant 

 up to 3^ feet long and 11 — 1| inch broad at the point where the 

 segments divide, then narrowing into a very acuminate point which 

 is shortly split at the apex ; lateral segments gradually becoming 

 narrower, longer acuminate and more deeply divided. Spadix 

 shorter than the leaf, with a few partial inflorescenes ; primary 

 spathes papery, reddish brown or cinnamon-coloured, delicately 

 striate, more or less acuminate at the apex, on the ventral side of 

 the upper part open, with the margins entire or slightly filamentous 

 fibrous ; partial inflorescences forming panicles which are broadly 

 ovate, 6-8 inches long with many flowering branchlets inserted ir- 

 regularly on the principal axis ; flowering branchlets filiform, about 

 J ? inch thick, the lowest ones 3^ — 4 inches long, the upper ones 

 a little shorter, with numerous flowers spirally arranged and borne 

 on pedicels ^ — ^ inch long. Perianth low-cupular, divided al- 

 most to the base into 6 narrow subulate teeth ; stamens usually 

 9, anthers linear, JL inch long, spirally contorted, obtuse at the 

 apex ; ovary ovate-globose, very abruptly constricted into a short 

 neck which widens into a large infundibuliform stigma. 



Fruiting perianth disc shaped, depressed. Ripe fruit |- T 5 2 inches 

 in diameter, spherical, black-violascent ; pericarp fleshy. Seed 5-3% 

 and even ^ inch in diameter, cerebriform. Embryo exactly apical. 



Habitat. — San Domingo. 



