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Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



Tlie leaflets are firmly papyraceous, ensiform, quite straight and very grad- 

 ually narrow above from below the middle, to a very acuminate, rather rigid, 

 briefly bifid apex, generally more deeply split by age, they are attached to the 

 rachis by a narrow base and have here the margins strongly reduplicate; they are 

 green on both surfaces, but on the lower are rather densely sprinkled with very 

 numerous, very small dots visible only under a strong lens; they have a 

 strong mid-costa, very prominent above, and covered below by an almost con- 

 tinuous line of elongate chaffy scales; the secondary nerves are 2-3 on each side 

 of the mid-costa; the tertiary nerves are very numerous and not very prominent; 

 margins acute, not or very slightly thickened ; transverse veinlets obsolete. The 

 intermediate leaflets are 70-95 cm. long and 3.5-i cm. broad. 



The spathes are two; the exterior spathe is tubular, pervious at its upper end, 

 considerably shorter than the interior one, which completely envelops the spadix 

 before the anthesis, and is at that time flattcned-fusiform and biconvex, later 

 deciduous. 



The spadices in number 3-4 are erect at the same time, when not yet open, at 

 the base of the lowest leaf-sheatli, are spreading when in flower, and when in fruit 

 form dense subglobose panicles around the summit of the trunk, under the shade 

 of the magnificent crown. The spadices have a very short, broad peduncular 

 base, and are twice branched ; the primary branches are conspicuously swollen at 

 their bases and are divided into several alternate flowering branchlets ; these are 

 slender, terete, 1.5-2 mm. thick at the base, 15-25 era. long or shorter, more or 

 less sinuous between the flowers, and narrow very gradually above to a subulate 

 apex; while still enclosed in the spathes they are covered by a curious kind of 

 trichomes, formed by vesicular, acute cells, grouped at the end of a small, 

 simple or branched, pedicel ; after flowering the groups of vesicular cells are 

 detached from their pedicels, and are dispersed in the form of a fine granular 

 powder, while the pedicels remain to render the surface of the branchlets more or 

 less puberulous-{)apillose. 



The flowers are light colored even when dry, are ternate almost to the end 

 of the branchlets and are inserted on very superficial flat orbicular pulvinuli. The 

 male flowers are at all times considerably larger than the female, are irregularly 

 ovoid, obtuse, 5-6 mm. long, 3.5-4 mm. broad; the calyx is very small, with slightly 

 imbricate, scarious, subpellucid, subdeltoid, obtuse or acute, and more or less 

 carinate, sepals ; petals considerably longer than the sepals, concave, thinly per- 

 gamentaceous, irregularly ovate-oblong or oblong-elliptical, bluntish or subacute, 

 striately veined, have internally at the base a nectariferous swelling. Stamens 

 usually 6-7, occasionally 8-9, about as long as the petals also during the. anthesis, 

 about 5 mm. long on the whole; anthers relatively large, 3 mm. long, erect when 

 in the bud, slightly shorter than the filaments, ovate-elliptical or ovate-sagittate, 

 obtuse, the cells united by a broad conspicuous connective, dark colored in the 

 dry state, inserted on the filament about their middle, from which the cells remain 

 separated in their lower part; filaments 4 mm. long, linear subulate at apex, 

 somewhat flattened; rudimentary ovary globose, with three short, acute, stigmatic 

 points. 



