268 TlMEHRI. 
terminating in a more acute point, in colour a lighter 
and purer yellow, with a less fibrous fleshy covering. 
Ripe in November to January. The stem, except when 
the plant grows in exposed places, when it becomes bare, 
is densely clothed with enormous, flat spines arranged in 
bands varying in breadth individually {i.e. each band 
varying in breadth on different aspects of the tree) and 
varying also in breadth the one from the other. 
The spines vary in length, and are set in different direc- 
tions, the longest downward, some of the shorter upward. 
The leaf-stalks, which clasp half round the stem, but are 
not sheathing, are densely clothed as far as the lowest pinnae 
with spines, which gradually decrease in size, the longest 
being nearly as long as those on the stem. Above the 
lowest pinnae the spines are fewer, and are confined to 
the lower side of the midrib, but some are present even 
to the very top of the leaf. The leaves start from the 
stem in a very upright direction ; but from a point about 
halfway between the base and the lowest pinnae they 
curve very gradually outward. 
The spathe is long, but very narrow ; the outer side 
densely clothed with bristles, among which are scattered 
a few small spines. 
The trees stand singly, but several are often grouped 
near together in some special part of the forest, not on 
the river banks, but generally not far from the river. It 
grows throughout the colony. 
Where, as is often the case, this palm has obtained a 
hold in cultivated and partially cleared, sandy ground, 
it is gregarious and springs up in immense numbers, as 
does A. tucumoides in the same way, and chokes out 
almost all other vegetation. 
