388 
palm^e. (I. B. Balfour.) 
[ Verschaffeltia. 
the face ; leaf- sheath 2|-3f feet long, white-granular ; blade cuneate 
obovate, bright green, 4-7 feet long, 3-5 feet broad, bifid, the edges 
deeply incised, the primary veins prominent on both surfaces, fur- 
nished with a few medially-attached scales on the lower one, each 
primary nerve bordered by two inconspicuous veinlets. Spadix 3-6 
feet long ; peduncle compressed, 3-4 feet long : flowering-branches 
7-8 inches long. Fruit -J-l in. diam. Begelia magnifica, princeps, 
and majesties, Sort. Steven sonia viri difolia, Duncan , MSS. 
Seychelles, very common amongst rocks in all the islands, Horne ! Endemic. 
Latte. 
10. STEVENSONIA, Duncan. 
Monoicous. Flowers in 3-flowered clusters, one female between 
and below two males, spirally arranged on the thick branches of a 
doubly-branched erect long-peduncled spadix in the axil of a leaf. 
Spathes 2 ; outer persistent, covered with bristles ; inner woody, 
deciduous. (Horne.) Male. Inner segments of perianth valvate, 
many times longer than the outer ones. Stamens 15-20, connate at 
the base, included. Rudimentary pistil a subulate grooved column. 
Female. Staminodes forming a shortly-toothed cup. Fruit a small 
ovoid drupe, flattened on the side on which the subbasilar stigma is 
placed, furnished with a ridge on the convex side when dry ; mesocarp 
thin fibrous ; endocarp crustaceous, not grooved. Seed ascending, 
cordate-ovoid, flattened on the side on which it is attached ; branches 
of the raphe spreading from the base and anastomosing near the 
apex ; albumen deeply ruminate ; embryo basilar. Disteib. The only 
species. 
1. S. grandifolia, Duncan , Cat. Hort. Maur. 87 (name only). Palm 
40-50 feet high, the stem very spiny when young, less so when old. 
Petiole 9-18 in. long, glabrous, pale green, convex below ; leaf-sheath 
2-3 feet long, hoary, scaly and spiny ; blade cuneate-obovate, bifid, 
oblique at the base, deeply laciniated down the side, with incised 
segments ; primary veins prominent, bordered with two secondary 
veinlets on each side, clothed with a few medially-attached brown 
scales beneath. Spadix 3-6 feet long; peduncle T|-3 feet long, 
compressed at the base ; branches 1-1£ foot long. Lower spathes 15 
in. long; upper club-shaped, smooth, 2-3J feet long (Horne). Fruit 
orange-red, f in. long. Seed ^ in. long. Phoenicophorium sechellarum, 
Wendl. in III. Hort. xii. 433, M>sc. 5. Astrocaryum pictum and 
Borsigianum, Hort. Areea sechellarum, Hort. 
Seychelles, common in all the islands, Horne ! Endemic. Latanier feuille. 
We retain the name given to this plant by its discoverer, and published by him, 
though without description. The name Phcenicophorium, subsequently given, and 
invented for the purpose of commemorating the disgraceful fact of a specimen of 
this Palm having been stolen from Kew by a foreign employe, should surely be 
suppressed. 
