Beccari and Rock — PritcJiardia. 31 



n. den Samoa-Ins. etc. Ill, p. 63) no Prifcliardia is found growing wild in Samoa 

 and the specimens preserved in the Kew Herbarium must have been obtained from 

 a cultivated plant. 



2. PRITCHARDIA THURSTONII F. Muell. et Drude in Gartenflora, Sept. 



1887, 486, fif. 123, 124, and in Garden Chr. Sept. 1887, 341 ; Becc. Malesia, III, 



290, t. XXXVII, f. 1-12. 



Washingtonia Thurstonii O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 11 (1891) '/2)7- 

 Eupritchardia Thurstonii O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. Ill (1898) 323. 



Description. — A smaller plant than Pr. paciUca. Stem apparently 4-5 m 

 high, and about 15 cm. in diam. Leaves, glabrous in every part, at least when 

 fully developed; blade one-third of a circle in outline, fiabellate with a broadly 

 cuneate base, parted to somewhat above the middle into numerous segments ; 

 thinly coriaceous, nearly glaucescent underneath from a very thin waxy coating, 

 and also sprinkled with small elliptical lepidia, which nestle into small depressions 

 of the epidermis ; transverse veinlets immersed in the parenchyma and little 

 visible; central segments 50 cm. long in the free part, and 4-4.5 cm. broad at the 

 places of disjunction, from thence gradually acuminating to shortly bifid apices ; 

 the lower costse are furnished with a few hyaline scales and are otherwise 

 glabrous. Petioles apparently little shorter than the blade, 4 cm. broad at apex. 

 Spadices several, springing from the crown, arched-nodding, longer than the leaves 

 and up to 2 m. in length ; they consist of a rather dense, relatively short ovate 

 panicle, supported on a very long peduncular part, which is sheathed by several, 

 very elongate spathes; rachis of the spadix terete, 8-12 mm. in diam. throughout; 

 panicle about 30 cm. long, twice branched in its lower part (the lower and inter- 

 mediate branches being 2-3-furcate) and simply branched above; floriferous 

 branchlets slender, 10-15 cm. long, 2 mm. through, and minutely wrinkled when 

 dry, though apparently rather fleshy when fresh. Flowers rather closely' spirally 

 arranged around the branchlets, each furnished with a minute bracteole, when 

 full grown just before expansion, oblong, 6-7 mm. long; calyx cupular-campanu- 

 late. shortly 3-toothed; staminal ring (at the time of the anthesis) shortly pro- 

 truding beyond the calyx ; filaments subulate; anthers linear-oblong; corolla about 

 twice as long as the calyx, its segments semiovate, 7-costulate; ovary depressed- 

 turbinate, truncate, and strongly sculptured above; style subtrigonous, sulcate. 

 Fruit globose, 7 mm. in diam., terminated, slightly excentrically, by the rather 

 conspicuous remains of the abortive carpels and elongate style ; the whole pericarp 

 is not quite one millimeter thick. Seed spherical, 4 mm. in diam. Fruiting perianth 

 pedicelliform, slightly campanulate, 3 mm. long and equally broad. 



Habitat.— Discovered in the year 1886 by the late Hon. J. B. Thurston 

 in one of the more eastern islands of the Fiji group. 



Observations. — It is easily distinguishable from Pr. pacifica by its smaller 

 dimensions; by the smaller flowers and fruits; by the slender spadices longer 

 than the leaves. I have completed the description of this species given by me 

 in Malesia (1. c.) availing myself of a good specimen preserved in the Berlin 

 Herbarium, derived from a plant cultivated in the Demerara Botanic Garden in 



