Part 19

This palm appears to be indigenous to the countries near the Andes. On the Amazon and Rio Negro it is never found wild. It is mentioned by Humboldt as having a smooth polished stem, which is a mistake.

Very fine specimens of this tree are growing in the great Palm House at Kew.

Plate III. fig. 4. represents a fruit of the natural size.

Genus ACROCOMIA, Martius.

Female flowers in the inner, male flowers in the outer part of the same spadix. Spathe complete, woody. Male flowers with six stamens and a rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with a short style and three stigmas, and a ring of abortive stamens.

The stems of these Palms are tall, strong, and more or less prickly. The leaves are large, pinnate, much drooping, and forming a dense spherical head of foliage. The leaflets are linear, and with the petioles are very prickly. The spadix is simply branched, and the fruit is round or oval, of an olive-green colour, and has a firm fleshy outer covering, which is often eaten.

Eight species of this genus are known, inhabiting various parts of South America, but more particularly Brazil. One or perhaps two species are found at Pará, but none on the Upper Amazon, where the alluvial soil and dense forests are unsuited to their growth.

Pl. XXXVII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ACROCOMIA LASIOSPATHA. Ht. 40 Ft. ]

PLATE XXXVII. ACROCOMIA LASIOSPATHA, Martius.

Mucujá, Lingoa Geral.

The stem of this tree is about forty feet high, strong, smooth and ringed. The leaves are rather large, terminal and drooping. The leaflets are long and narrow, and spread irregularly from the midrib, every part of which is very spiny. The sheathing bases of the leaf-talks are persistent on the upper part of the stem, and in young trees clothe it down to the ground.

The spadices grow from among the leaves, erect or somewhat drooping, and are simply branched. The spathes are woody, persistent and clothed with spines. The fruit is the size of an apricot, globular, and of a greenish olive colour, and has a thin layer of firm edible pulp of an orange colour covering the seed.

This species is common in the neighbourhood of Pará, where its nearly globular crown of drooping feathery leaves is very ornamental. The fruit, though oily and bitter, is very much esteemed and is eagerly sought after. It grows on dry soil about Pará and the Lower Amazon, but it is quite unknown in the interior.

Several young plants of this and a species closely resembling it, the A. sclerocarpa, are growing in the Palm House at Kew, and in the Museum at the same place are specimens of the stem and fruit sent by Mr. Bates and myself from Pará.

Martius mentions the A. sclerocarpa only as being found at Pará, but his description of the other species agrees best with the tree here figured. The two, however, seem very closely allied, if they are really distinct species.

A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural size.

Genus ASTROCARYUM, Meyer.

Female flowers few in number, situated beneath the males on the same spadix. Spathe complete, woody. Male flowers with six stamens and a rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with three stigmas and a rudimentary ring of stamens.

In this genus the stems are generally lofty and thickly set with rings of spines, but some species are stemless. The leaves are large and pinnate, the leaflets elongate and linear, and as well as the petioles very prickly. The spadices are simply branched, and the fruits are ovate or globose, with a fibrous or fleshy covering, sometimes eatable.

Sixteen species of these Palms are known, inhabiting Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South America, but not extending higher up the mountains than 2000 feet above the sea. They have rather a repulsive aspect, from almost every part,—stem, leaves, fruit-stalk and spathe, being armed with acute spines in some cases a foot long.

Pl. XXXVIII.

W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.

ASTROCARYUM MURUMURU. Ht. 20 Ft. ]

PLATE XXXVIII. ASTROCARYUM MURUMURÚ, Martius.

Murumurú, Lingoa Geral.

This palm has the stem from eight to twelve feet high, irregularly ringed, and armed with long scattered black spines. The leaves are terminal and of moderate size, regularly pinnate, the leaflets spreading out uniformly in one plane, elongate, acute, with the terminal pair shorter and broader. The petioles and sheathing bases are thickly covered with long black spines generally directed downwards, and often eight inches long.