CXLII. PALM^. 1683 



12. LIVISTONA, R. Br. 



(After P. Murray, of Livistone.) 

 Flowers hermaphrodite, in a loose panicle, with sheathing bracts on the main 

 rhachis and peduncle. Outer perianth thin, 3-lobod or 3-toothed, inner longer, 

 of 3 valvate segments. Stamens 6, distinct but contiguous ; filaments broad and 

 thick vfery shortly filiform at the top ; anthers small, ovate. Ovary laterally 

 3-lobed, the carpels readily separating, with 1 erect ovule in each. Style shortly 

 columnar, with a 3-toothed stigma. Fruit ovoid or globular, reduced by abortion 

 to a single carpel, the pericarp not thick, hard when dry. Seed erect, the hilum 

 somewhat lateral. Albumen with a deep broad excavation on the inner side, 

 filled with a brown spongy tissue. Embryo dorsal. — Low or tall erect palms. 

 Leaves fan-shaped, plicate, the lobes or segments acuminate and entire or 2-cleft, 

 and frequently a small bristle or filament between the lobes. Panicles usually 

 large and decompound from among the leaves. Flowers very small, solitary or 

 clustered along the slender rhachis of the ultimate branches. 



Besides the Australian species which are endemic, there are a very few from the Manlaya 

 Archipelago or South China. 



Leaf-lobes with a thread in the sinus. 



Petiole 3Jft. long, the margins armed half-way up with short curved 



prickles. Fruit oval, 6 lines long, pericarp wrinkled 1. L. MuelUri, 



Petiole Sft. long, the margins armed in the lower half with short curved 



prickles. Fruit somewhat pyriform or oval-oblong, 4 to 5 lines long, 



smooth 2. L. Benthami. 



Leaves glaucous, white. Fruit globular, 9 lines diameter 3. X. Maria;. 



Leaf -lobes without a thread in the sinus. 



Petioles Sft. long, the margins armed with curved prickles J of the way up. 



Fruit globose about lin. diameter 4. i. attstralis. 



1. Ii. Muelleri (after Baron Mueller), Bail. "Bel-em-buna," Cairns, 

 Nugent. Trunk 7 or 8ft., clothed to near the base by the old leaf-sheaths and 

 portions of the petioles. Leaves very numerous, forming a dense head. Petioles 

 without the sheath about 3^ft. long, and from 2in. broad at the base to fin. at 

 upper end, where the upper face forms rather a prominent ligula, smooth, edges rather 

 acute, usually bordered in the lower half by small curved prickles ; leaves of a 

 very harsh texture,, nearly orbicular in circumference, about 2ift. long and 

 scarcely as broad, entire for about half the length, then divided into numerous 

 narrow infolded segments, which at their extremities are more or less deeply 

 forked, and each fork tapering to a thread-like end. The thread-like bristle 

 between the segments at the first forking of the leaf short, and here the margins 

 of the segments often minutely serrated. Inflorescence forming elongated 

 panicles, numerous amongst the leaves, attaining about 4ft. in length, upon a 

 peduncle of about I6in. Bracts closely embracing the rhachis, the lower ones 

 exceeding 1ft. long, the upper ones gradually smaller, striate, abruptly acuminate -, 

 secondary ones narrower, with a prominent finely serrated keel, ending in a 

 longer acumen. Branchlets slender, flowers numerous, solitary or in small 

 clusters, but none on the specimens to hand. Fruit not quite ripe, oval, about 6 

 lines long, the pericarp thin, wrinkled outside. Seed nearly globose, about 3 

 lines diameter, endocarp pitted. — L. humilis, E. Br. var. ; Bail. Ql. Agri. Journ. 

 ii. 130. 



Hab.: Cairns, E. Cowley. 



2. Ii. Benthami (after Geo. Bentham), Bail. " Dre-amberi," Batavia River, 

 Roth. A tree of about 50ft. high, and a trunk circumference measurement of 

 about 25in. Leaves (2 received) were cut off at the sheath. Petioles, 

 the longest over 5ft., the upper end about |in. broad, ending on the inner side in a 

 triangular ligula of about lin. long, the lower end more than twice as broad as the 

 upper ; both faces clothed withwhitish furfuraceous scales, the margins armed in 



