988 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



Note. — It is good to remember that the specific name " argentea" 

 has been applied, not only in gardens and hothouses, but also by 

 many authors, to all the species of Thrinax and Coccothrinax 

 which show a silvery white on the underside of their leaves. 



Illustration. — Plate XIII B shows a well grown specimen of 

 the Silver Thatch Palm (under the synonymous name of Thrinax 

 argentea) in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Peradeniya in Ceylon. 

 The stem is about 12 feet high. We owe the photograph to the 

 kindness of Mr. H. F. Macmillan. 



THRINAX sw., Prodr., 57 (1788). 



(From the Greek ' Thrinax,' a fan, alluding to the form of the 

 leaves). 



Schreber, Gen. 772.— Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, III, 254, 320, t. 

 103, 163.— Endlicher, Gen. 253.— Meisner, Gen. 357.— Drude, 

 Engl, and Prantl. Pfianzenf. II, pt. Ill, 34. (sect. Porothrinax) . — 

 Sargent, Silva N. Am. X. 49. (sect. Porothrinax) ; Bot. 

 Gaz. XXVII, 83. Becc. Webbia, II, 247. 



Small unarmed trees, with stems covered with pale-grey rind. 

 Leaves orbicular, or truncate at the base, thick and firm, usually 

 silvery white on the lower surface, divided to below the middle 

 into narrow acuminate parted segments with thickened margins 

 and midribs ; rachises narrow borders, with thin usually undulat- 

 ing margins ; ligules thick, concave, pointed, lined while young 

 with hoary tomentum ; petioles compressed, rounded above and 

 below, thin and smooth on the margins, with large clasping 

 bright mahogany-red sheaths of slender matted fibres covered with 

 thick hoary tomentum. Spadix interfoliar, stalked, its primary 

 branches short, alternate, flattened, incurved, with numerous 

 slender rounded flower-bearing branchlets ; spathes numerous, 

 tubular, coriaceous, cleft and more or less tomentose at the apex. 

 Flowers solitary, perfect ; perianth 6-lobed ; stamens six inserted 

 on the base of the perianth, with subulate filaments thickened and 

 only slightly united at the base, or nearly triangular and united 

 into a cup adnate to the perianth, and oblong anthers ; ovary 

 1 -celled, gradually narrowed into a stout columnar style crowned 

 by a large funnel-formed fiat or oblique stigma ; ovule basilar 



