Beccari and Rock — Prifclwrdia. 49 



in obtaining some thoroughly mature fruits of the Palolo pahn, growing at 

 Konahuanui (the highest pealv on the Koolau range) which proved to have an 

 entirely different shape from those described above, not being elliptical, but globose 

 and semi-spherical. It is therefore not at all impossible that the fruit figured by 

 Gaudichaud was also an immature one, as it seems a rather common occurrence 

 in Pritchardias for the fruit to change in shape until it has reached maturity. 



In the picture of the fruit of Pr. Martii, in Gaudichaud's work are partic- 

 ularly visible the remains of the corolla tube and staminal ring spreading under 

 the fruit, a peculiarity which I have not observed so marked in any other 

 Pritchardia, but which is very plain in Rock's mentioned specimens. Further- 

 more, the correspondence of the nature of the hairy indument of the lower surface 

 in the leaf blade of Rock's specimens, with that of the actual typical Gaudichaud's 

 specimens is perfect. 



Rock's specimen collected in Palolo Valley is accompanied by a small photo:- 

 graph taken (in situ) on the very edge of a precipice. It shows a rather low palm 

 with a short and relatively stout stem and rigid leaves with robust petioles. The 

 specimens from \A'ailupe Valley (the valley between Palolo and Niu Valley) are 

 accompanied by the following field note: "The palm is short, only 10-15 f^^t 

 (3-5 m.) tall. The inflorescence branches 3 times (in another note it is 4 times), 

 the fertile flowers are borne on the last branch and densely clustered, while the two 

 lower branches are sterile." Apparently the three inflorescences or panicles, into 

 which the spadix divides, do not expand the flowers at the same time, and prob- 

 ably only a single panicle, the terminal one, produces fruits ; but I have not been 

 able to discover any organic difl^erence in the flowers of the various inflorescences; 

 probably there is only a kind of dichogamy between the flowers on the inflor- 

 escences of the same spadix. 



Pr. Martii is well characterized b}' its relatively small stature and rather 

 thick short stem; by the peculiar tomentum clothing the lower surface of the 

 leaf blade ; by the long spadices composed of 3-4 distinct panicles ; and especially 

 by the large, ellipsoidal (or at complete maturity subglobose?) pointed fruit, 

 borne by a perianth having the calyx callous and pedicelliform and the remains of 

 the corolla tube and staminal ring split into a few conspicuous spreading parts. 

 It differs from Pr. uiacrocarpa, to which otherwise Pr. Martii is related, in the 

 tomentose undersurface of the leaves, and in the conspicuous pieces of the fruit- 

 ing perianth. The flowers of Pr. Martii, however, are barely distinguishable from 

 those of Pr. uiacrocarpa. 



