i.\7> 8HRUB8. 



ACOELOKKAl'HK. 11. Wr.M.i. 



(Palm*.) 



Acoelorraphk, II. Wendland. Hot. Zcit. xxxvii. 1 18 1879 , BwMri, R • i, i. 107. 



Serknoa, Sargent, S i: km t 1908 



l'uiioih.ii. K. B '. I " ■ ; -. bb. 13 (a p.n (1908). BriMoa & Sbafor, 



Trees, with tall slender often clustered steins clothed for many yearn with the sheathing b*ae» 

 of the petioles of fallen leaves. leaves suborhicular, divided into numerous I wO-p M ted segment* 

 pi icately folded at the base ; rachis short, acute; *%■&■ thin. tOMMI) furnished with a broad 

 membranaceous dark red-brown deciduous border; petioles slender. Hat or slightly concave on 

 the upper side, rounded and ridged on the lower side, with a broad high rounded ridge, thickened 

 unci cartilaginous on the margins, more or less furnished with stout or slender tlattened teeth ; vagina 

 thin and lirm, bright mahogany red, lustrous, closely enfolding the stem, tlieir films thin and 

 tough. Spadix paniculate, interpetiolar, its rachis slender, compressed, ultimate branches numer- 

 ous, slender, elongated, gracefully drooping. hoary-toineiito>e. the primary branches flattened. 

 ,'te in the a\il> of ovate acute chestnut-brown bracts; spathes tlattened. thick 

 two-cleft and furnished at the apex with a red-brown membranaceous border, 

 his Of the panicle, each primary branch with .Is spathe and the nude of the 

 closed fa a separate upathe, the whole surrounded by the larger spathe of the 



and fan two- or three-Howered clusters near their base; calyx truncate at the base, divided into three 



the fruit ; corolla three-parted nearly to the base, its divisions valval* in .estivation, oblong-ovate, 

 thick, concave and thickened at the apex, decidum.- ; sta.net,. six. included; filaments n.arlv 



triangular, united below bote ■ c.padnate to the short tube of the ootolk; inthm short-oblong. 



attached on the back below the middle, introrse. tw. .-celled, the cells opening longitudinally | m.-.ry 

 obovate. of three carpels, each with two deep depressions on their outer faces, united into a slender 

 style; stigma minute, terminal, persistent on the fruit ; ovule solitary, erect from the bottom of 

 the cell, anatropous. Fruit drupaceous. Bobgioboso, one-seeded, black and lustrous ; BCOOttp thin 

 and fleshy ; endocarp thin, crustaceous ; seed erect, free, subglobose, light chestnut-brown ; testa 

 thin and hard ; hilum small, suborbicular ; raphe ventral, oblong, elongated, black, slightly promi- 

 nent, without ramifications ; albumen homogeneous; embryo lateral. 



Two species of Acoelorraphe have been distinguished; they inhabit southern Florida, and one 

 species occurs also in Cuba and on the Bahama Islands. 



The generic name, from a priv., koIAos and pa4>ij, refers to the character of the seed. 



The Florida species tu first referred by roe to Serenoa (see Hot. Gazette, xxvii. 90). Acoelorraphe is, however. weU 

 distinguished from Serenoa by the calyx. The calyx of Serenoa is dipolar and only slightly three-lobed, while in 

 Acoelorraphe it is divided into three tegmenta. The sculptured depression* found on the carpels of Acoelorraphe do not 

 occur in Serenoa, and the fruit of Acoelorraphe does not hare the fibrous orange-brown resinous mesoearp of that of 

 Serenoa. The two genera may also he distinguished by the rachis of the leaf. In Acoelorraphe the lower side of the 



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