74 Mouoirs Bernicc P. Bishop Museum. 



crenate : rachis narrow, somewhat produced into the blade. S Radices short, com- 

 posed of a loose panicle 20-25 cm. long at the end of an about as long or perhaps 

 longer peduncular i)art ; upper spathes ( only two present in the specimen at 

 hand) tubular in their lower part, expanded above into a concave ass's ear-like, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, thinly coriaceous, rigid, outside, appressedly rusty, tomen- 

 tose blade : the panicle at time of anthesis is spreading, or curved, and thrust 

 out of the spathes : it has the rachis finely rusty tomentose. but is finally glabrous, 

 and is loosely divided into few very spreading branches, of which the lower are 

 3-4 partite, and the upper simple: floriferous branchlets 12-16 mm. long. 2-3 mm. 

 thick at the base, narrowed above, and subulate at apex, subterete, and nearly 

 straight, being nnlv verv slightly sinuous between the floral pulvinuli, the latter 

 superficial, furnished with a very minute subulate bract. Flozccrs irregularly 

 spirally inserted in the lower part of the branchlets, alternate and subbifarious 

 above, apparently somewhat fleshy, small, 7 mm. long funopened) and 2-5 mm. 

 broad at the base, and narrowed above to a rather acute apex; calyx cyathiform- 

 campanulate, tricostulate-subtrigonous. of a fleshv subcoriaceous structure, inter- 

 nally solid at the base, and with three minute teeth at the otherwise truncate 

 mouth : corolla twice as long as the calyx, the segments semi-ovate-triangular, 

 acute, inserted just outside the mouth of the calyx, spreading during the anthesis, 

 and soon deciduous: staminal ring, ]irotruding above the calyx, crowned bv six 

 narrowly-triangular, acuminate filaments : anthers linear-sagittate, obtuse and 

 slightly emarginate at a]iex: ovary turbinate, sculptured above and rather sud- 

 denly narrowed into a trigonous, sulcate, rather slender stvle; stigmas punctiform. 

 Fruif, when young, obovoid, narrowed a little at the base, and with the small 

 remains of the sterile carpels at apex: when thoroughly mature, globose, 15-18 mm. 

 in diameter: whole pericarp of the young fruit thin, not quite 2 mm. thick; meso- 

 carj) scanty, parenchymatous, slightly fibrous ; endocar]) easily separating from 

 the mesocarp, very thinlv woody : it forms a fragile kernel to the free seed, is 

 globose, frequently slightlv irregular. 11-14 mm. in diameter, and very obtusely 

 caudiculate. Seed globose 8-10 mm. in diam.. erect, with a verv dark brown dull 

 surface: hilum small, orbicular: the rajihe extends all along one side, and has 

 no visible vascular branches ; the integument is somewhat thicker on the raphe 

 side than elsewhere, and enwrans the albumen on that side, but does not penetrate 

 into its substance. Albumen homogeneous, hard, nearlv horny: embrvo placed 

 aboui midwav of the antiraphe side. Fruiting pcrionfli persistent: the hardened 

 cah-v forms a distinct terete pedicel and upon it nersist the remains of the corolla 

 tube, and of the staminal ring with its recurved filaments. 



Habitat. — Cuba and the S. \\'est coast of the Tsla de Pinos. In Cuba : 

 Plautac Cuhanac Wriglifiaimc Xo. 3964 (Berlin Herbarium); at Herradura 

 Prov. of Pinar del Rio. J 'an Hcniiann Xo. 5302, Herb, de Cuba. Estacion central 

 Agronamica (Herb. Beccari and Berlin). On the Isla de Pinos at X'ueva 

 Gerona, ff". T. Curfiss. ^^■est Ind. PI. Xo. 364 (Herb, de Candolle, Berlin and 

 Munich). 



Obser-c'afions. — It is a most singular palm owing especially to the peculiar 

 appearance of its stem, which, being swollen in its lower portion, looks like an 

 enormous bottle, tapering above into a long neck. I have already pointed out 



