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



investing the rather 

 thicker crustaceous light 

 brown inner coat, and a 

 deeply furrowed depres- 

 sed globose tawny brown 

 seed j inch in diameter, 



with ruminate albumen. 

 Fig. 12. 



Thrinax parviflora. \^ *8 • / ■ 



1. Vertical section of fruit. HABITAT. — Up to now 



2. A seed (enlarged). the Thatch p alm h&g 



3. An embryo (much magnified). 



(After Sargent). been found in Jamaica 



only. A Thrinax from Florida, which was formerly included in 

 this species, is now known under the name Thrinax floridana, 

 Sargent. 



Uses. — The wood of the Silk-Top Palmetto is light, soft, and 

 pale brown, with a hard outer rim about ^ inch in thickness, and 

 contains numerous hard inconspicuous fibro-vascular bundles. The 

 specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0-5991, a cubic foot 

 weighing 37-34 pounds. 



Illustration. — Major A. T. Gage has kindly supplied me with 

 a photograph of Thrinax parviflora as shown on Plate XV. The 

 specimen is growing in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens. 



THRINAX BARBADENSIS, Lodcl., in Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, III, 

 257. — Griseb. Fl. West. Ind.. Isl. 515. — Duss, Guadel. et Martinique, in 

 Ann. Instit. Col. de Marseille, vol. Ill, 1896.— T. parviflora, Maycock, Fl. 

 Barbae!, 146. — Copemicia barbadensis, Hort. 



Names. — Thrinax de la Barbade, Latanier, Palmier a balai. 



Description. — A very ornamental tree ; stem up to 50 feet high 

 and more, cylindric, 5-7 inches in diameter. Leaves large, 

 flabelliform, palmatifid, glabrous ; segments numerous, lanceolate, 

 acumimate ; ligule obsolete, truncate ; petiole not armed, compress- 

 ed-convex on both sides, about as long as the leaf-blade, covered 

 at the base with a fibrous network. Spadix large, 10-20 inches 

 long, consisting of about 4-10 partial panicles on a common axis, 

 glabrous ; each partial panicle enclosed in a membranous sheath 

 which is closed up to the middle, upper part acuminate, concave. 



