264 TlMEHRI. 
as in A. tucuma. A. plicatum, Drude, which will 
presently be described, represents in some respe6ts 
an intermediate form between the two sections, approach- 
ing tucuma in the ' shuttle-cock,' or erect, arrangement 
of its leaves, but in most other points more nearly resem- 
bling the Munbacca set. 
Measurement. — Height to base of leaf-stalk= 15 ft * ; girth of stem 
at 5 ft. from ground = 7-i inch, at base of leaf-stalk = 8£ inch. Length 
of leaf = 6 ft. 3 inch, of leaf stalk to lowest pinnae = 1 ft. 8 -J- inch. 
Breadth of leaf 3ft. 2 inch. Length of longest pinnae 3^ inch. 
The fruit is smaller than in any other of the Guiana 
species, is yellow in colour, and is ripe in the first quarter 
of the year. When ripe it bursts, to allow the nut to 
drop out, in a curious way. The fleshy covering of the 
fruit splits and folds back so as to form a four-pointed 
star, which remains adherent to the rachis, while the 
nut drops to the ground. I do not know that any of our 
other palms has, as this thus has, a dehiscent fruit. 
This species is allied, among those of the genus Astro- 
caryum of Guiana, to A. plicatum, Drude, by the fact 
that in both the fertile flowers are on the main rachis, 
the barren on branch raches ; but it differs from A. 
plicatum in that its fruit is smooth, instead of prickly 
as in that species. On the other hand it differs from A. 
tucuma, Mart, A. tucumoides, Drude, and the others of 
that section, all of which also have smooth fruits, in that 
round the base of its fruits there is a ring, or involucre, 
of broad, flat, dark-brown hairs or prickles. 
A. Munbacca grows under the shade of the forest in 
moist, but not swampy, places, and is widely distributed 
throughout the coast and forest tract. The stem is very 
* This was the height of an average specimen ; but the variation in 
this point is very considerable in this species. 
