142 FLORA OF NEW PROVIDENCE AND ANDROS 



spatheae are apparently dioecious palms with a single complete spathe 

 and pedicellate flowers, without orderly arrangement. The Cyclo- 

 spatheae may also be recognized at once by their strongly conduplicate 

 leaf segments, a feature in which they are especially divergent from 

 Chamcedorea and the related genera, which have the bases of the seg- 

 ments more open than in most of the pinnate-leaved palms. 



Cyclospathe gen. no v. 



A small palm obviously allied to Pseudophcenix Wendland, but 

 distinct in having the trunk short and with short internodes, the 

 inflorescence infrafoliar, and the calyx deeply lobed ; also in the pos- 

 session of a curious, short, collar-like spathe completely encircling the 

 main axis of the spadix near the middle of its base. 



The leaf segments are strongly folded together like those of Pseudo- 

 phcenix, but the lower margin is not incurved to bring it against the 

 upper as in Pseudophcenix. The "dark conspicuous gland-like ex- 

 crescences" described by Sargent (Silva, lo, 33) on the sides of the 

 rachis at the base of the pinnae are evidently much smaller in Cyclo- 

 spathe, and are mostly confined to the angle of insertion of the upper 

 margin of the pinnae. 



Further differences between Cyclospathe and Pseudophcenix are 

 discussed in connection with the following description of the type 

 species : 



Cyclospathe Northropi sp. nov. 



Trunk less than 3 m. in height, about 22 cm. in diameter, slightly 

 bulging in the center; leaf scars distinct, about 2.5 cm. apart; leaf 

 bases very glaucous, also the rachis; rachis distally subtriangular in 

 section, the leaf-bases completely crossing the lateral faces and even 

 prominent above the narrow crest; upper and lower margins of the 

 pinnae inserted on the same plane at the lateral angles of the rachis ; 

 segments are not so strongly plicate as in Pseudophcenix, the two edges 

 meeting the rachis about 5 mm. apart, and not thickened and incurved 

 as in the heavier and larger leaf of Pseudophcenix. 



The specimens studied have about 20 of the apical pinnae on each 

 side ; lower pinnae about 47 cm. long by 23 mm. broad ; apical pinnae 

 gradually reduced to 27 cm. by 10 mm. and smaller, the terminal divi- 

 sions not completely separated. The distal pinnae are farther apart 

 than the proximal. 



