JRoscJieria. ] 
PALM2E. (I. B. Balfour.) 
387 
branches of a compoundly-branching spadix in the axil of a leaf with a 
long compressed glabrous peduncle. Spathes several, smooth, complete. 
Male. Perianth very minute. Stamens 6, included, united into a ring. 
Budimentary pistil a column as long as the stamens, capped by a 
triquetrous disk. Female. Staminodes forming a minutely -toothed 
cup. Fruit small, black, elliptical ; stigma subbasilar ; mesocarp 
thin, fibrous ; endocarp crustaceous. Seed ascending, elliptical, 
slightly oblique; raphe spreading from the base, its branches ana- 
stomosing on the side opposite the hilum ; albumen loosely ruminate ; 
embryo basal. Distrib. The only species. 
1. R. melanochoetes, Wendl. MSS. Palm 15-25 feet high, with 
many aerial roots and a stem 2-3 in. in diameter, with a ring of 
spines when young below each leaf-scar. Leaf 4J-7 feet long ; petiole 
feet long, smooth, subtriquetrous, grooved down the face with 
a pale band running from the top of the sheath down the back of the 
petiole; leaf-sheath lf-2|- feet long, w r ith a few fine black spines 
rising from a compressed cushion ; blade pale green, 3-5 feet long, 
2-3 feet broad, entire when young, unequally pinnate ; pinnae 1-1^- 
feet long, bifid at the apex, with many primary veins f-1 in. apart, 
clothed on the under side with medially-attached scales. Spadix 2~6 
feet long ; peduncle 1-3 feet long, compressed, an inch thick ; branches 
very slender, flattened at their insertion. Spathes marginate. Fruit 
in. long ; scar of stigma very prominent. Seeds sometimes 2 
(Horne). Verschaffeltia melanochoetes, Wendl. in III. Hort. 1871, 
t. 54. 
Seychelles, in shaded forests above 1000 feet in elevation, common, Kirk ! 
Horne ! Endemic. Latanier Haubaum. 
3. VERSCHAFFELTIA; Wendl. 
Monoicous. Flowers in 3-flowered clusters, one female between 
and below two males, spirally arranged on the short branches of a 
doubly-branched slightly amplexicaul slender drooping spadix with a 
glabrous compressed peduncle. Spathes 3. Perianth very minute, 
not seen in the flowering stage. Staminodes forming a ring with 6 
short 2-lobed teeth. Fruit globular ; scar of the stigma subbasal ; 
mesocarp spongy ; endocarp thick, woody, brittle, with vertical ridges 
reaching from base to apex. Seed ascending, globular, umbilicate at 
the base, marked with ridges corresponding to the grooves of the 
endocarp ; raphe branching from the hilum and anastomosing freely 
over the surface ; albumen deeply ruminate ; embryo subbasal. 
Distrib. The only species. 
1. V. splendida, Wendl. in 111. Hort. xii. Misc. 5. Palm 80 feet 
high, with many aerial roots and a stem 6-12 in. in diameter, which, 
like the leaf-sheaths and petiole, is very spiny when young. Leaf 5-8 
feet long ; petiole |-1 foot long, pale green, semiterete, grooved down 
2 c 2 
