NOTES ON PHILIPPINE PALMS, I. 
By Dr. Odoardo Beccari. 
( Florence , Italy.) 
An enumeration of the palms growing in the Philippine Islands was 
recently published by me, 1 but as the extensive botanical explorations 
now in progress in the Archipelago are continually bringing to light 
numerous new forms of this fine group of plants, it is my purpose to 
describe them in these “notes” as material, courteously transmitted 
to me at Florence by Elmer D. Merrill , Botanist of the Bureau of Science 
at Manila, becomes available. 
ARECA Linn. 
Areca Whitfordii Beec. n. sp. 
Major, caudice circ. 10 m. alto, 20 cm. crasso. Folia amplissima, 
limbo 2. 3-2. 5 m. Ion go ; petiolo brevi, 15 cm. longo, 2.5-3 cm. spisso, 
superne prof unde sulcato, marginibus acutis, vagina 1 m. longa; seg- 
mentis numerosis inaequidistantibus et faciculatis, costulis 2-3 validis- 
simis et superne valde prominentibus percursis, basi argute 2-3-plicatis ; 
segmentis intermediis circiter metralibus, ,4.5-5 cm. latis, falciformibus, 
longe acuminatis; superioribus sensim brevioribus et apice obtuse den- 
tatis ; duobus terminalibus basi unitis, pluricostulatis. ' Spadices 45 cm. 
longi, 3-plicato-ramosi. Flores d Fructus perianthio cyathi- 
formi-obconico 15 mm. alto sufliulti, elongato-elliptici, 40-42 mm. longi, 
18 mm. erassi, fere aequaliter utrinque sensim attenuati, apice truncato, 
3 mm. lato, mammillaeformi et in medio breviter mucronulato ; meso- 
carpii fibris tenuissimis, numerosissimis, pluriseriatis. 
A rather large palm, about 10 m. high. Stem 20 cm. in diameter. 
( Whitford ). Leaves very large; the leaf-sheath about 1 m. in length, 
coriaceous, its inner surface silvery white and more strongly striate than 
the outer; the petiole comparatively very short (15 cm. long in one speci- 
men), 2.5-3 cm. thick, deeply channeled above, its margins sharp; the 
pinniferous part 2. 3-2. 5 m. long, its rachis very robust, round near the 
base beneath and somewhat depressed and flattish in the intermediate por- 
tion. The leaflets numerous, rather closely set, inequidistant and more or 
1 Le Palme delle Isole Filippine, in Webbia (1905) 281-359. See also: Palmae 
in Perkins, Frag. FI. Philip. (1904) 45-48. 
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