﻿1874.] S. Kurz — Enumeration of Burmese Palms. 201 



tion but in cases of absolute absurdity* : it prescribes with ahnost ma- 

 thematical precision the ultimate change. Why, for example, shoukl we 

 call Guatteria paUlda, BL, at present Marsypopetalioni ceratoaanthes, 

 SchefF., and not M. pallidum? or why should the well-known Flmhristylis 

 dlphjlla, with its pageful j of synonyms, be rechristened F. polijmorpha^ 

 Boeck. ? The objection raised on account of increase of names absque 

 necessitate is a feeble one, and cannot counterbaUmce the advantages of a 

 strict rule against arbitrary acts. 



6. A. GRACILIS, Boxl)., Fl. Ind., Ill, 619 ; G-riff., Ind. Falm., 154, t. 

 232, A—G, et in Macl. Gale. Journ., V, 459. 



Hab. Frequent in the evergreen tropical forests, especially in marshy 

 places, from Chittagong, Pegu, and Martaban down to Tenasserim. Fl. H. 

 and E. S, ; Fr. the following year. 



Dr. Scheffer identifies this species with Blume's Finanga patula ; F. 

 patida, however, has distichous flowers, quite difl'erent fruits, and smooth 

 slieaths and spadices. Again, A. disticJm, Roxb. (of which Ptycliosperma 

 simplicifrons, Miq. is an exact synonym), which has a hispid spadix and 

 scurvy sheaths and spathes, is also reduced to his Finanga jpatula — a course 

 in which I cannot follow him. 



7. A. HEXASTICHA, 71. SJ)., PL XII. 



A slender simple-stemmed gregarious palm, 20 to 30 feet high, the stem 

 3 to 4 in. in girth, the sheaths, etc. thinly scaly-rough, soon turning 

 glabrous ; leaves 3 to 5 feet long, pinnate with the end-pinnse confluent, on. 

 a short (3 to 4 in. long) scaly-rough petiole broadly sheathing at the base ; 

 pinnije linear, somewhat falcate, 1 to 1^ feet long, alternate, 2- to 3-ribbed 

 and many-nerved, the lower ones acuminate, the upper and terminal ones 

 crenate-lobed and ending in as many bluntish and shortly 2-lobed lobes 

 as there are ribs : flowers sessile, spirally arranged in 5, higher up in 

 6, grooved rows along the simple reflexed spike up to a foot long, the rachis 

 as thick as the finger, fleshy ; female perianth (in young fruit) very much like 

 that of A. gracilis, the sepals and petals almost conform, broad-oval, blunt 

 or bluntish, about a line long or a little longer ; staminodes apparently 



* If in such cases a rule were to be established to the effect that a species thus 

 changed in name should be called after the author who first named and described it, 

 the cases of doubt would be reduced to a minimum. Dr. Mueller Arg. has given some 

 additional rules in his " Nomenclatoric fragments" defending his harpagean principles 

 adopted in the loth vol. of De Candolle's Prodi^omus, but I think that few, if any, right- 

 minded men would refuse to adopt a MS. name, if they have knowledge of the same or if 

 they have the plant, authentically named, at their disposal. On the other side, I fully agree 

 that MS. names, the plants of which are inaccessible to an author, even if published but 

 not characterized, are truly valueless " nomina chartacea," and as such reducible to 

 species described at a later date. No one will ever persuade me to spend a few thousand 

 rupees on a journey to Europe for the purpose of unearthing MS. names ! 



