Palms of British Guiana. 273 
Genus XIX. Maximiliana. 
[" Character of Cocos (i.e. Perigone exterior and interior 3-leaved. 
Stamens 6, included. Ovary 3 (-i)-celled : Stigmas 3. Fruit woody, 
i -seeded: putamen 3-porous at the base, 3-cristate at the summit. 
Albumen hollow. Spadix simply branched), but fruit drupaceous, with 
a smooth, pointed putamen. — Flowers approximate, male amentaceous, 
female few, below the former." Griesbach.~\ 
M. Martiana, Karst: 
(= M. regia, Mart.) 
Local Names. 
True Carib (and Macoosi) Mareepa. 
Arawak Kokerite. 
Warrau Doe-e. 
Measurements. — Flowering part of spike = 2 ft. 4 inch. Leaf to 
lowest pinnae = 1 1 ft. ; from this point to top = 24 ft. 
In most parts of the colony, except perhaps on the 
immediate coast land, this is the commonest palm, vary- 
ing, however, considerably in height. On the Corentyn, 
where it is very common, it is very tall ; while in some 
parts of the swamp-lands of the Pomeroon district, in 
which particular place it is comparatively rare, it has 
generally no stem. 
In all stages of its growth it is a very striking plant. 
When young, before the stem is developed, its few, but 
most noble, leaves rise almost straight from the ground, 
only their tops curving, and the whole recalling to the 
dweller in the tropics, stateliness of the grander speci- 
mens of ' Irish yew ' at home. And when, at a much 
greater age, its stem has developed to a great height, 
it is still the grandest of all our palms. Part of its 
stateliness — I cannot help harping on the word, for it ex- 
presses the character of the tree, is lent it, at this stage 
of its existence, by the fa6t that the bases of the old and 
withered leaf-stalks, and also the withered flower-spikes 
