JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
Vol. XXIV June, 1923 No. 282 
THE NEEDLE PALM—RHAPIDOPHYLLUM HYSTRIX 
If one should thrust his hand close to the stem of this palm 
he d promp 
applied to this plant. 
structures constitute an important part of ie leaf-sheath by 
being woven together by coarse pliable fiber: 
Botanically, this palm, which is quite unique in our flora, is 
only a little over a century old. However, the ne 
suggestive of a very ancient — a eine Woes its 
very Salon leaf-sheath, its flow e dioecious; that is, 
the staminate flowers and ns pistillate ee are borne on 
different ee 
708) ne ‘standpoint oe ae geography, one needle- eae is 
t of our 
fopicll American species or are identical with them. In some 
a 
originated in or migrated to southeastern North America at the 
same time that the other types . plants that are common to 
eastern North America and to eastern Asia flourished—Tumi 
Croomia, Hugeria. At all events, fe erie is lost in ore 
time. 
As in the cases of some of our other Asiatic plant-relatives, 
this te may have inhabited the highlands, perhaps both the 
105 
