Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



375 



B. Leaves with the blade unequally divided, with several of the pri- 

 mary divisions three-costulate, and divided again into unicos- 

 tulate bifid segments. 



Full-growTi flower-buds relatively large, obovoid with a 

 rounded top, 4 mm. long, 2 mm. broad. Fruit globular, 9-10 mm. 

 in diameter, narrowing a little towards a slightly bent base. S. Yapa 



Sabal parviflora Becc. in Webbia di U. Martelli, II, 43. S. mexicana (non 

 Mart.) Sauvalle, Fl. Cub. 152. 



From the Fig. 150 the adult plant appears to be a fine palm with a rather 

 robust, high and almost regularly cylindrical columnar trunk surmounted by 

 a fine and dense crown of large leaves. The trunk is evidently thicker than 



Figure 151. Sabal parviflora. a, full-grown unopened flower; b, c, flowers during the 

 anthesis; d, longitudinal section of a flower; e, fruit; f, fruit as seen from the 

 hilum side; g, h, seeds, median section through the embryo. Fig. a, b, c, d, e, g, 

 from Curtiss No. 484; fig. f, h, from Wright No. 3970. 



that of Sabal palmetto. From what I can judge by the photograph, the old 

 leaves do not remain long hanging down from the lower part of the crown, 

 but drop off, as soon as their physiological function is fulfilled, leaving the 

 naked stem slightly but closely ringed by the leaf-scars. (Fig. 151.) 



On« photograph which I have seen shows the crown invaded by an epi- 

 phytic Cereus which having first rooted itself in the rubbish accumulated at 

 the base of the leaves which also readily catch and retain the rain water in 

 their axils, has grown into a large and very dense mass of long dependent 

 tail-like stems. T have observed a very similar occurrence in a photograph of 

 a Sabal, communicated to me by Prof. Trelease, which I have doubtfully re- 

 ferred to C. rosei (see Webbia 1. c, p. 85) ; in the mass among other epiphytes 

 there appear to be also a cactaceous plant. In the back-ground of the same 

 picture may be seen several individuals of apparently the same Sabal, having 

 their long trunks terminated by only a tuft of the central and youngest leaves, 



