A NEW SPECIES OP TACCA. 
305 
ART. LI.— ON A NEW SPECIES OF TACCA. 
By Thomas Nuttall, Esq. 
Tacca ^oceanica, maxima, foliis palmato-quinque partitis 
coadunatis, laciniis palmato-multifidis acuminatis, ultimis trifi- 
dis; involucrum foliolis lato-ovatis sublobatis breviusculis. 
Habitat. In rich shady woods, towards the mountains in 
Tahiti, and probably other of the Friendly Islands, as well as 
in Wahoo, Owyhee, and Atooi, of the Sandwich group. 
Description. The root consists of numerous yellowish 
white skinned tubers, scattered over with eye buds like so 
many potatoes, and are, in fact, scarcely distinguishable from 
the roots of that common vegetable ; from these arise in 
the summer season, clusters of tall spreading palmately divided 
smooth leaves, from two to three feet high, of which length 
the foot stalk forms two-thirds or more; the leaf itself extends 
out to the breadth of eighteen inches or two feet, and is di- 
vided into three primary divisions, and two others which are 
lateral, or come out above the base of the side divisions; these 
principal divisions are divided very much in the manner of 
our red oak leaves, or pinnatifid towards the base, and more 
or less dilated, and three-lobed beyond; each of the principal 
divisions again inclining to be three-lobed, except the central 
one, which is usually pinnatifid as well as terminally three- 
lobed; all the divisions end in acuminated points, and are, 
below, every where confluent into each other, down to the 
primary divisions or summit of the footstalk. 
The leaves are, probably, possessed of some degree of suc- 
culence, but the vessels beneath present a strong, almost 
pinnated outline. The scape or flower stem, in the only 
specimen I possess, is very stout, and rather more than three 
feet high, attenuated towards the umbel, — whose involucrum 
consists of about two series of broad, ovate, acute, and some- 
times slightly three-lobed leaves, which appear to have 
been white, or some brighter colour. The umbel consists 
of numerous longish pedunculated small brown, or brownish 
